Last night's Friday-night dinner reverted to the traditional type of cuisine for the cold months of fall and winter. There were some changes, however. Instead of matzoh balls for the chicken soup, or more familiarly, rice, we decided on tiny thin noodles for a change.With lots of parsley from the herb garden. And because Irving favours it so much, deboned, skinned chicken thighs well herbed  and simmered in a chicken-based gravy including mushrooms and carrots, with tiny star-shaped pasta. And last, roasted cauliflower. A warming meal for a cool evening.

Evenings stopping just short of the frost mark. With all the familiar signals that frost isn't far off. Most of the garden annuals look bedraggled and can no longer produce much in the way of flowers. They're scheduled to be composted shortly. The hanging baskets are beginning to look pretty pathetic. They've been through a lot; from incessant rains flooding their roots to windy days drying them out and sun a little scarce of late.

Irving decided that he would tackle the automatic garage door openers himself. He always has the option of calling for service from another garage door specialist in the area, but it was surprising that the one he had contacted just never showed up despite an appointment. So he moved the vehicles out of the garage, hauled up a ladder, took apart the apparatus and fiddled about with a few things. And now they're both responding to the gadget that automatically lifts them. So that's that. For now.

Yesterday he changed the on/off switch on one of our bedroom lamps. In the morning, it had suddenly failed; there was a brief bright flare, and off it went. It was a two-stage switch. Irving dropped briefly by Canadian Tire to pick up a replacement, then set about fixing the lamp. Another household thing done. Would be nice if that's it for a while.

I'd meant to do a little garden work, mostly tidying up, but didn't get around to it. I prepared Jackie and Jillie for our afternoon hike, but we waited for Irving to drive the truck and car back into the garage, J&J watching me quizzically, wondering why we were left to wait in the mudroom/laundry room. and then we were off!

We haven't seen our old friend Rob in ages, but there he was, with Nova, his white German Shepherd. We'd heard that Nova had become a problem, attacking other dogs, and Rob tended to take her out in the early morning hours to avoid running into other people and dogs. We've known Nova since she was an excitable puppy and she has always been gentle with our two, and so she was today.

 It quite astonished us to note the colour changes day by day, with a greater emphasis today on an emerging overall sheen of yellow, and the occasional burst of red. We keep hearing squads of southern-migrating geese overhead, honking their goodbys to soon-to-be-frozen Canada. This weekend was 'aboriginal awareness' weekend. We came across people symbolically wearing orange tops to indicate their solidarity with Canada's indigenous population.

Today, there was a background sound of drums thrumming faintly in the distance. Irving, with keener hearing than me, could hear accompanying drone-singing. It was hard to tell where the sound was coming from; it might have been amplified, with a group performing at a far distance, the sound travelling through a portion of the forest. It was certainly different from the sounds we normally hear in the forest.

And though for the considerable length of time we were out with our puppies and the length and interconnection of trails we traipsed, we saw few other people altogether. Still, unlike yesterday when Irving was thronged with dogs determinedly heading for the Cookie Man, entirely wiping out his supply, there was a visit from a beautiful Vizsla whom we see on occasion, admiring its graceful lope and beautiful conformation.