Our two sons celebrate their birthdays this month. Both now in their 60s; their sister in between. We wonder, as people always do where the time has gone. All those years, all those thoughts and memories, the vast multitude of scenes fixed hard in the deep recesses of memory that surface now and again. And dreams where the children are young and then in a swift sequence, inexplicably mature.

But we live in the present, finding our comfortable niche where we can, adjusting our perspectives. Modern life does not resemble the trajectory of lives centuries ago when people rarely left their home villages, and generations of families lived together. Now, there are 'visits' with and from loved ones in lock step with the world having become a smaller place with the advent of easy travel and communications. All other interventions aside, it's called 'getting on with life'.

Cleaning day today. Nothing like routines to fix the mind on the present. From the day we married over 67 years ago, we more or less 'divided' housekeeping chores. Until shortly afterward we became homeowners, in our first modest little bungalow, and chores re-arranged themselves into the neat categories reserved for men and for women. And then, soon enough, only one of us was in the paid workforce, the other remained at home to raise three children.

Not quite accurate; both raised three children. When it came to our children each of us was fully capable of doing what the other did, and when time and opportunity permitted everything was a family affair. Now, there are four disparate households; ours the original, and three offshoot households.

As soon as the last floor has been washed in this house following the dusting, mopping and vacuuming, routine takes us with our puppies out for a long hike through forest trails. That part of our day is soul-soothing, relaxing, mind- and body-refreshing. There's an element of entertainment, of restfulness in the very physical action of making our way over the  soft surface of the forest floor, and wandering the trails, observing the changes in the tree canopy as we pass.

There was frost last night, and there will be again tonight. After which the temperature will begin to moderate temporarily and we should be enjoying temperatures in the low- to high-double digits. And with sun, which has returned to brighten our days. Last night's frost did not destroy anything, although the truth is, many of our annuals look bedraggled and bare of flowering colour, a long, unavoidable process as summer dragged on and fall took its place.

We lost nothing yesterday, the flowers that were in bloom before the frost are still blooming today. Some of them spectacularly; those plants that are relatively tolerant to cold weather. There's a reason that we have always favoured begonias in our garden planters and that reason smiles at us now in bright insouciant colours that continue to grow and glow.