With this cold weather we're on a cold-weather-comfort-food journey. It was really, really cold last night, and then the rain came pelting down. A dark night, perfect for snuggling up before the fireplace. I decided for a cream of carrot soup for dinner to accompany a spaghetti squash and fruit salad comprised of fresh plums, pears and kiwis. Nothing complicated about the soup; into it went chopped garlic clove, onion sauteed in olive oil, then potato, celery, and of course carrots and mixed herbs, along with a chicken soup cube for its base, and finally sour cream. The squash was done simply; a garlic/pepper combination and lots of shredded cheese.

The last thing the fencing crew did was make slight alterations to the gate that Irving had made decades ago, to re-hang it onto the newly-installed fencing. They've taken away all their gear, but the morning hours were busy with a last-minute completing schedule. Irving has to now scoop clay left on some grassy areas. We had lots of rain again last night; the combination of raw unearthed clay and rain spell muck.

Several weeks back I received an email that looked authentic enough, from Bell Canada. Wanting me to update my password. Just click here, it said. Well, I didn't, ambivalent whether it really was from Bell or whether it was a scam. Last week Irving found his laptop frozen, zapped by malware. Instructions were to do nothing, certainly not to shut down the computer, but to click here and Microsoft technicians would guide him to a process whereby he could destroy the malware. He brought it to me, and I looked online on my computer and found a reference to the fraud, and how to proceed in getting around the scam, so I restored the computer and it was fine.

Yesterday, another, urgent message from 'Bell Canada', that payment for our account was frozen, refused because the account hadn't been updated with a new password as they required. I was to react immediately, or lose service completely. This time I did react. I went directly to my Bell Symp0atico account to see whether I was required to update the password. I chose to 'speak' directly to a technician, and he gathered data from me, asked a few questions to which I responded, giving him the email address of the messages I'd received. He corroborated my impression; it was a scam. It's amazing that people have nothing better to do than attempt to scam the unsuspecting. But it must work, otherwise they'd never come up with these elaborate, credibility-straining devices.

Another cold and windy day, so we dressed for it, and wandered over to the ravine, glad to see there was still colour, still leaves on the trees despite the wind and last night's rain. But a lot of trees are looking pretty naked right now. And this weather is slated to continue for the near future, before we get a sunny break and milder weather. Part of the transition, after which we'll be in serious pre-winter weather for November, the gloomiest month of the year, in our opinion.

We were comfortable enough against the weather as we strode through the forest trails, coming across no one until one little Lab mix well known to us suddenly appeared to sit patiently awaiting the dole-out of cookies. He couldn't have situated himself in a more beautiful setting, the lush accumulation of bright foliage like a soft, comfortable and luxurious rug sprawled on the forest floor.

We could feel and smell rain in the atmosphere, but were fortunate during the course of a long hike to avoid rain. Only on our return back home, and a quick round of the really sad looking garden, did the rain clouds close in and open up. The garden hostas have mostly turned bright yellow, an echo of the trees in the forest, both poplars and maples with variations between them of peach, orange and red. Right beside the hostas adjacent the walkway are giant wax begonias that unlike the smaller variety that have succumbed to the frost, are still mightily blooming.