While putting together breakfast for us and for the puppies I decided to prepare the filling for an apple pie, as well. We haven't had apple pie for quite awhile and it seems appropriate for a top-off of a winter meal. We had navel oranges, bananas, oatmeal and tea and coffee, while Jackie and Jillie had their kibble topped with cooked chicken and supplemented by sharing a scrambled egg. Then I turned my attention to the pie filling; sugar, cornstarch, cranberry juice, five medium-sized Gala apples, sliced. And the pot put on to simmer gently while we had our breakfast.

While I was cutting up the apples the fragrance of the apples was too much for Jackie. He pleaded for some apple, and I offered small pieces to him and his sister. He ended up with both, because he's a fruit-lover and Jillie can take it or leave it, and after sniffing the offering she left it. That stoked their little furnaces well, and they settled down for an after-breakfast nap while Irving and I devoured the newspapers along with our breakfast.

Later, I added butter to the still-hot finished filling, along with cinnamon, raisins and snipped crystalized ginger. Prepared a pastry crust, top and bottom and baked the pie, as well as preparing a bread dough for use tomorrow. I'm making a chicken dish in mushroom gravy using deboned, skinned chicken thighs so I cut them into bite-sized pieces and set them aside in the refrigerator sprinkled with herbs and olive oil.

Like yesterday, this has been a sunny day, a radiant sun in a wide pale-blue sky with tiny tufts of white cloud drifting by. And the temperature! It rose to a balmy 10C by late morning, quite unbelievable for this time of year. Jillie settled down in her little bed and Jackie leaped up to the settle beside the bed, to enjoy the sun streaming through the patio doors while I worked in the kitchen.

Yet another perfect day for a turn through the ravine, although every day, regardless of the weather turns out to be a 'perfect day' for our customary visit to the forest trails. Thanks to the mild temperature all the snow crusted in driveways and on the road has melted. But we know from long experience that there would be ample snow left on the forest floor, and on the trails it would be transformed to ice, so our cleats were in order.

It would be just downright impossible for anyone to negotiate the hills in the ravine without being prepared adequately and crampons are the only way to go. The sun was bright and warm and this time I wore nothing on my head, and a lighter winter jacket. Jackie and Jillie wandered here and there, but never out of sight, and it didn't take long before we had our first visitors lining up politely for cookies. It's just not possible to appreciate the manners of so many dogs we come across patiently waiting for attention.