Preparing to ready ourselves to leave the house early for food shopping, I pulled a nice warm sweater over my head, snuggled into the turtleneck top and felt one of my earrings leave my ear. It was nowhere to be seen. I thought it might have got tangled in the sweater, I lifted the scatter rug, I looked behind the door, nada. I've worn those earrings for close to the last twenty years, a gift from Irving on our 50th wedding anniversary. It may turn up yet at some time, somewhere. It's a tiny gold hoop with inset diamonds. Too bad.

Once the shopping was done we gave our attention to getting Jackie and Jillie out to the groomers for their badly needed haircut. Oh, bath and nail trimmings too. They know when we pull up what's on tap. Just as well the young women who look after them treat them like royalty, warmly affectionate, so they're trusted by the pups. 

 

 

When we return an hour and a half later, they see us from a floor-to-ceiling window in one of the old veterinarian inspection rooms. The grooming part of the veterinary clinic we take them to once housed the clinic, now it's attached to a larger, newer addition.

Yesterday was a cold, damp day. Our plan to get out for a ravine hike in the afternoon went awry when freezing rain entered the picture. We can hike in freezing rain, but this was heavy freezing rain and wind swept it toward our faces, so we opted out. Just as well since Jillie wasn't feeling particularly well for the past week. Her tendency to chew wood came back to haunt her. We had picked up some FortiFlora for her at t he vet and it and rice and chicken soup seems to have finally settled her stomach.

 

I had soaked some pinto beans the night before, deciding to make stove-top 'baked beans' for dinner, for a change. In the morning I drew the beans to a boil, and simmered them for an hour, then left them to await the addition of garlic, jalapeno pepper, onion, tomato paste, salt, pepper, molasses, and a wee bit of Tabasco to simmer in the late afternoon. They were just the way we like them by dinnertime and made a savoury, spicy treat for a change.

 

Today, we set out on a really mild day for our missed afternoon hike of yesterday. The sun blazed overhead, but what might have been a perfect winter day was made a trifle chillier than it might have been if the wind wasn't as persistent as it was. Still, after the freezing rain, about four cm. of snow followed, leaving the forest trails in excelling hiking shape. So we decided, given the circumstances, that it made sense to prolong the hike a bit.

 

Over the fresh new snow we could see shards of wood littering under some trees, a signal that a Pileated woodpecker had been hard at work. In the distance as we were hauling ourselves up the last of the hills, completing our circuit for the afternoon, we heard the hoarse rasp of a raven.

 

Returned home, I set about to bake a meat pie for dinner. On Monday we'd had a roast beef dinner. Too much for us to eat at one sitting, so I cut up the leftover roast to use it as the base for the pie. One that is a meal unto itself, since it contains as well, onions, garlic, mushrooms, carrots, green peas, and tiny roasted potatoes.