We're steeped deeply in voluminous rain again. Not only rain, but the temperature has taken a plunge; 3C in the morning and it has since, by afternoon, nudged up 2 degrees. There'll be frost tonight, but our remaining flowering plants won't be hurt this time, I'm sure, since they've been well inundated with rainwater; protection against a quick frost. 

In weather like this we work to a kind of relay team rhythm. One of us dons a raincoat and persuades the puppies to follow outside. Jillie is quick, she does her business and zips back up the stairs to be let into the house. Jackie takes his sweet time, no matter the weather, and sallies back and forth around the backyard, trips around to the back of the garden sheds, under the deck, over to the back fence, then repeat. He's in no hurry.

Meanwhile, whoever stayed in the house takes in the wet, bedraggled pups as they appear at the sliding doors to towel them down as dry as possible. Invariably, after this routine they're bumptious and want to have a tussle; not with one another, but with us. We take turns at this routine too.

I took my camera out with me on one of my 'turns' to snap a few pics of the still-blooming backyard potted begonias. They look perfectly composed. This weather presents no dilemma to them. Not until frosty nights become more numerous and seriously nippy. That's the time when garden clean-up includes divesting the containers of their bright and beautiful flowers.

The wind that has accompanied the cold and the rain has thrashed the trees, bringing down more foliage, twigs and whatever else is detachable. Everything, leaves and flowers, glistens with rain. The windows are thick with droplets that cling to the glass. The screens are full of rain. Ladybugs are doing their own seasonal thing, trying to escape the cold by entering the house with us. Yesterday on our return from our brief ravine hike we found a slimy snail clinging to Jillie's haircoat. Out it went, poor thing, into its element.

No interlude in the rain today offering us an opportunity to get out. A perfect day to warm ourselves with the  help of the fireplace, and on it went. It will remain on for the remainder of the day, until we move ourselves upstairs to bed.

On the brighter side, we've got a family Zoom get-together this evening when our older son talks about his recent trip to Italy to attend an international Antique Telescope Society convention, that took place in Rome, Florence and Milan. He had 'spare time' to visit museums and art galleries with their legendary sculptures as well as absorb the sites visited as a group by attendees of the conference where he delivered a paper himself.