Nature has given us a temporary reprieve from late-fall cold and wind, and we're grateful. Overnight temperatures were far higher than they've been in a month of frosty nights. And it felt so balmy this morning, it was comfortable enough to be out in the backyard with just a light jersey. It was also why during my hours of cleaning up the garden yesterday afternoon, I soon worked myself into a sweat. 

 

I had intended to hold off for as long as I could, cutting back still-flowering roses and happily blooming annuals, so whatever looked in good health stayed put, and I just worked around them. Now that we've a spate of mild weather they're in fine fettle. No sun, and ongoing rain threats, but the air humid and warm pleases them as mightily as it does us.

 

 

I've still plenty remaining to be done. Although I've been cutting back perennials and shaping the gardens up for winter's arrival over a lengthy period of time, there's still enough to be done that the backyard will still need a day's work. And after that the garden urns and pots will surrender their annuals. And the final tranche will be emptying the pots of their soil and distributing it all to some areas of the backyard gardens. 

Irving will put away the rest of the garden furniture in the large garden shed, and he'll also cover our garden statues, and the urns and pots with large plastic bags to keep them from the inevitable freeze-and-thaw cycles that occur when they fill with water that will become solid ice and strain their integrity. We've had them for decades, and wear over the seasons has become evident.

 

In the afternoon we went off for our ramble through the ravine, when the laundry had been mostly completed. I've decided on making a seafood paella for dinner tonight and that'll take some thought. In the meantime, we enjoyed the forest with Jackie and Jillie. As a result of this perfectly beautiful weather, we were able to dispense with jackets for them. Hard to say whether they felt freer and more comfortable without them.

 

 

The fall colour zenith has now passed. Despite which there are ample splashes of bright colour here and there to provide us with an ongoing autumnal landscape even if it's somewhat muted. On days like this out on the woodland trails, no hurry, fully relaxed, the minimal effort it takes to clamber up some of the hills makes for a perfect outing for all of us.

The occasional stop for chats with any others who might be out and encountered makes it also a pleasant social event now and again. Not to be compared, however, with ambling down the street after exiting the forest, to see neighbours out raking, amending lawns, placing Hallowe'en decorations on their lawns, taking full advantage of the kind of weather children yearn to have on the evening of October 31, not really caring if truth be known if it is cold, if it does rain, as long as their candy cravings for that night are satisfied.