We're still 'catching up', as it were, from our week away from home. Just as it takes some thought and effort to pack what we plan to bring along with us, it takes time and effort to unpack. Anticipation of a trip makes the former effort interesting, returning after the time away and needing to reverse the process lacks pleasure, so the latter becomes a drag on time and energy. Which included laundering everything that was worn while away, and it's surprising how much there was to be washed. We were also surprised by the litter that appeared on our walkway from all the fallen leaves and crabapples coming off our trees.

 

That all got cleaned up, and the compost bag holding them was incredibly heavy. Of course, I'd also done some pruning and cleaning and tidying up elsewhere in the garden, including the backyard, so it didn't take all that much to have two large compost bags ready for pick up at this morning's trash collection day. Looking out the front door first thing this morning, we saw two things; a heavily overcast sky and associated darkness, and the pathway being filled up again with falling apples. Oh, and the sight of Morning Glories percolating bright blue on the brick garage wall, despite an absence of sun.

 

We had a 2:00 pm grooming appointment for Jackie and Jillie, so we made off earlier than usual for our regular afternoon ravine hike through the forest trails with the pups. The earlier the better, as far as we were concerned, since the weather forecast alerted us to rain expected for the afternoon. Just before leaving the house it became even darker and we felt there was a good chance rain would begin while we were out, so it was raincoats all around.

 

The forest is beginning to take on the weary look of oncoming fall. There are still wildflowers in bloom; Queen Anne's lace, yarrow, pilotweed, asters and ragweed, along with goldenrod. And beautiful large clusters of blue-mauve asters, apart from the more common, smaller types. Oh yes, and the mysterious presence of 6-ft-high coreopsis plants suddenly making a blooming appearance in the forest.

 

We left Jackie and Jillie off at the groomers. They're perfectly comfortable there now, since they know everyone there. They'd prefer to be with us, but resign themselves to the inevitable. They'd gotten quite hairy, their coats thick and needing to be trimmed. It usually takes an hour and a half for them to be bathed, toenails clipped, haircoat groomed, depending on how busy the staff happens to be at any given time. Today the estimate was for an hour and fifteen minutes' return to pick them up.

 

Then we went off to do a little shopping. Mostly for fresh fruits and vegetables. And for those we bypass our regular supermarket and go along to Farm Boy where the choices are vast, the produce perfectly fresh and quite a bit more expensive than the prices at the supermarket. They're also the source now of the types of bread we prefer; when the old Rideau Bakery closed, they bought the bakery, so to speak, actually the bread recipes and now retail them at their various outlets.

 

From there to another shop for specialty cheeses that Irving is particularly fond of, and then back to pick up the pups. Immediately on our return home they checked through the shopping bags and awaited their vegetable salad. Because it's a cool and rainy day -- rain began just as we went along to pick them up -- I decided to make a beef stew with onion-mushroom gravy and kasha for dinner tonight. We'd bought fresh green beans, and a small basket of fresh-picked strawberries from Isle d'Orleans, and that'll be dessert.