I had decided yesterday that I would make a quiche for dinner. It's a little bit fussy to make, but I thought I'd have ample time. As things turned out, we were late in everything we did. Just one of those days. 'One of those days' encompasses a strange weather day that veered from morning rain to afternoon rain. Finally, the rain began to wane late in the afternoon. So we geared ourselves for a hike through the woods in light rain, hoping Jackie and Jillie wouldn't get too wet. 

They wore raincoats and didn't, after all get too wet. Mostly because while it continued raining awhile, rain suddenly turned to snow and that saved the day. We all enjoyed a pleasant enough hike, considering that the rain had softened the icy top portion of the snowpack, loosening it, so that our cleats bit into the formerly icy trails very securely, and we had no trouble getting about.

 

By the time we returned home it was really late, and we hadn't yet done the food shopping for the week, so off we went to the supermarket. A sea change from our usual COVID-era habit of getting out before breakfast to do our shopping. Our expectation was that we'd be coming alongside a lot more people shopping at 4:30 in the afternoon than at 8:30 in the morning. And we were not, in that sense, disappointed.

 

We managed to psychologically block out the heavy presence of other shoppers and focused on the usual. Shopping took a bit longer than usual, but apart from the now-inevitable sticker-shocks everything was well stocked, but for sale items. Little wonder that tuna at $.99 was absent. Instead we paid $1.49 apiece for tins to go into the Food Bank. Along with tins of chicken, ham, and soup, and boxes of macaroni and cheese dinner. 

 

It was late by the time everything was put away, and then it was time to prepare a pie dough and fill it for dinner, the quiche I had meant to bake. Irving loves eggs, but quiche, strangely enough, is one of his least favourite egg preparations. Yet for a change he ate every bit of this one, along with the spinach we had with it. He wasn't as enamoured of the sliced fresh peaches that resulted from the shopping, though.\

Halfway through this morning there was a telephone call from the Eye Clinic that the biometric reading for my right eye to prepare the custom-made lens had to be cancelled. One of their machines had broken down and the test was re=scheduled for the end of the month. I finished cleaning up the bathrooms, and we went off for a much earlier-than-normal hike through the ravine on an exquisitely beautiful day. Colder than yesterday which ended with snowsqualls and battering winds, and still somewhat windy, but sun-bright.

 

Jackie had been a bit squirrelly all morning. He could sense that something was up. He always knows when we're going to be leaving the house to go out somewhere leaving them alone. Those are the tines when high-pitched keening notes of protest and a chorus of prolonged howling ensue, a desperate plea from them not to go. After the call cancelling my appointment, he seemed quiescent, but still suspicious. That aura of unease dissipated when we went out for our ravine walk.

On our return Irving went out to the pharmacy with plans to go on to the library. They know the signals; if only his boots are out and not mine, they visibly relax, although they're careful to be right beside us anxiously until Irving exits the house into the garage. Once he's left and I'm there at home with them, a palpable sigh of relief can be felt emanating from their tiny bodies. All is well with their little world.