Henceforth for the foreseeable future until spring's arrival, soups will once again become a constant offering in this household. Yesterday was a suitable candidate, given the cold blustery weather with the sun withholding its presence save for occasional glimpses. So, on our return from our afternoon hike through the forest trails I chopped up vegetables for a hot and comforting October harvest soup. All the ingredients readily at hand and anxious to make a contribution; garlic cloves, onion, celery, bell pepper, tomatoes, new potato and herbs; savoury and satisfying.

 

Last evening it occurred to Irving that we haven't had breakfast waffles in quite a while. We've been focusing mostly on French toast or pancakes for Sunday morning breakfast. So this morning, out came the old waffle maker and we indulged in a bit of puttering about to produce the waffles. Jackie and Jillie were in complete agreement, they made a satisfactory alternative to the usual, and we'll have to remember to make them more often this coming winter for relaxed Sunday breakfasts.

 

After breakfast, Irving took himself down to his workshop taking along an old stained glass lamp he had bought while we were away in New Hampshire. It's a fixture we had seen during our June trip in a group antique shop and was still there, at a very reasonable price, so home it came with us. There were a few minor cracks and Irving busied himself awhile fixing them as only a stained glass artist can. And then he brought it upstairs to install it in the family room. He took down a clear-glass lantern-type fixture and now the dilemma is, where to hang it?

 

When I'd finished my own household tasks in cleaning up kitchen and bathrooms, washing linens, we went off to the ravine with Jackie and Jillie. A crisply cold day, but bright and sunny, lacking yesterday's wind. The forest still looks bright green, with the occasional smash of colour here and there, though a surprising amount of foliage has come down. Belying the prevailing green, however, there's a wintry atmosphere prevailing; not just the temperature, but the appearance of the forest meeting the eye.

 

Jackie and Jillie moseyed about as they usually do, and barked up a few of their friends, as usual. We're convinced they have an ulterior motive; glad to see their friends respond from who-knows-where...they're-suddenly-there ... because of course when Irving hands out the cookies they get their own share; the more the merrier works here.

 

Unusually, we came across several groups of teens in little packs seemingly discovering the romance in the forest. One group had busied themselves gathering up long slender branches that had fallen, that they leaned tee-pee style against an old tree, encircling it, and crawling inside as though it was a barricade of some kind where they could find privacy in the forest, shouting and gleefully pranking one another.

 

Another group, older teens this time, were challenging one another to walk tightrope-style over a huge old tree trunk suspended between two high points of a crevasse. A risky business, since a slip-and-fall would see them tumbling below quite a distance. They were completely absorbed in their enterprise, silently balancing themselves, one after the other.

 

And finally, another  group of three much younger boys on bicycles wheeling their bicycles up a hill and then cycling madly downhill on an adjoining, steeply narrow trail that ends just above one of the bridge entrances. Boys will be boys and it's just as well perhaps that their mothers sometimes have no idea what they can get up to when left to their own devices.

Somewhat like little dogs who allow their sense of curiosity to get the better of them.  Rarely does Jackie 'disappear'; he prefers to stick around and keep us in close proximity. Jillie will do that when she's been chastised, but it doesn't last long before she's off again. This time when we called she failed to respond, and we had no idea where she had gone off to, imagining something dire occurring to her. When an urgent note crept into my voice, she finally responded. And that's when she was leashed to spend the remainder of our hike that way.