In the summer months on hot, humid days the atmosphere can feel completely debilitating. It's when even in the relative cool of the forest canopy we tend to take our time tramping through the woodland trails. These days of cold weather as we progress into winter it takes us far less time to cover the same terrain in shorter order. It's so cold some days that even layering under warm winter jackets we can feel the wind and the cold seeping through to our cold-tender skin and as a result tend to walk faster to create the effect of greater energy expenditure transforming to bodily heat.

 

Not that it did much good today. We came back home feeling perfectly iced-through. On the other hand, we also know that when the body requires more energetic movement in a physiological effort to retain body heat it's a positively effective way of adding to the benefits of physical exercise.

It seems now from the evidence of the last few days that we're emerging from a period of unusually warm days, sliding back to normal for this time of year, with colder days. And cold days are usually the result of clear skies. So we have the sun blazing brightly warming up the house and brightening the ambient landscape and with it comes icy temperatures. Down to -10C overnight, and -5C during the afternoon high temperature period.

 

With wind, it can be fairly icy. And we had ample wind today to amplify the effect of the cold, the wind skilled at sending probing fingers of ice through our clothing to keep us awake to our need to keep moving. Jackie and Jillie had to be bundled into their warmer winter coats, along with the stouter harness and their boots. We put on extra innerwear over our outerwear. For all the good it did. But we also have heavier warmer coats in our winter inventory and that's the next step as the temperature continues to cool day by day until we reach those -20 days.

 

We're also into more robust dinner fare, to warm us and comforting food does that like nothing else can. Last night we had chicken noodle soup, though that's the usual for a Friday night.  Accompanying it was chicken, mushrooms, rice and cauliflower. Nothing like a good filling meal after a day of activity to help you sleep peacefully right through a cold night.

 

Irving is the shopper in this family. He goes about everywhere and never fails to bring home food items, even small kitchen appliances, clothing, and on occasion bedding. The latest was sheet sets produced out of not cotton but fleece, and they've proven to be the most comfortable, warm bedding we've ever enjoyed. Not everything is quite so successful, though. He decided a few months ago to buy a new toaster to replace one we've had for decades which was perfectly fine, but he's a sucker for sales.

 

The new one was poorly designed and mechanically deficient. The crumb tray difficult to manage, bread would often get caught in the slots, the controls were at the side, not the front like the old one, the settings were unreliable, and the thrust of the lever to begin toasting was so weak it took a number of tries to get it going. It's destined for the Salvation Army thrift shop, and we're resurrecting the old one with its great working features.