On our way to do the grocery shopping yesterday we stopped by the Salvation Army thrift shop first to unload some items. Among them was a tea table with carved skirt and legs and a tray top that we've owned for decades, probably produced around the turn of the century when fine furniture was still being constructed out of good hardwood, and this one was cherry. The people at the Sally Ann will likely put it among special 'gifts' they auction off from time to time. 

Also included was a raft of clothing we no longer wear, and someone will get some use of. It's taken us years to get around to culling things out of our clothing chests and cupboards and gradually we built up several bags full of items to be disposed of. What also joined the trip was a number of books, coffee-table picture books, cookbooks and political tell-alls. And it won't make a dent in all the disposable things we have in this house, bursting with too many things. Still, it's good to get a least some things out and someone will be able to make use of them.

Before we left for our walk in the forest this afternoon, I decided it was time to make over the bedding in our bedroom. Cotton sheets and light blankets were fine during the summer months, but it's really getting cold at night now. And last night was one of those cold nights. So, I thought, enough of this, and out came a set of flannel sheets and over it a light-weight duvet which will do us nicely until winter's arrival and then the winter-weight duvet will grace our bed.

While we were out on the trails later in the day we came across someone we'd known casually as a fellow trail-hiker for many years. Her husband was one of the people we knew who had died prematurely as a result of COVID. Not that he had contracted the coronavirus, but that one of the vaccines used to protect the public against the virus acted so immediately and harmfully to his body that his heart 'exploded' -- in the words of the attending hospital cardiologist.

She surprised us by saying she just bought a cottage. Not really a cottage by her description, more likely a late Victorian house close to a lake in New Brunswick. One of her brothers owns a property right across from hers. It's a place she's very familiar with; vacationing there every summer for the past 40 years. In fact she's originally from New Brunswick. She will likely sell her home here, although her children -- two sons, one married, live here -- and return permanently to New Brunswick. I thought it surprising that she would undertake such a large change in her life at this point, but she does happen to be quite a bit younger than us, so why not?

Although we see her irregularly now, her dog Millie recognized us from a distance and came loping over to say hello long before our friend hoved into sight. Millie wanted to be friendly and greet us, yes, but she was also hankering after the cookies that she knew would be handed out. And while we stood talking, she shared cookies along with two other familiar dogs whose excited barks Jillie had alerted to our presence.

It makes sense to get out and enjoy the out-of-doors on such beautiful early-fall days. When a good warm sweater will suffice for comfort. And the warming sun and light breezes remind us how remarkably pleasant it is to be out. The passage overhead of long vees of geese on their migratory route to southern climes yet another reminder.