Nature has gone off on a teasing tangent. Most of last week was so cold we wore hats and gloves along with our pre-winter-warm jackets. And Jackie and Jillie wore theirs, as well. Days when the wind whipped through the forest made it seem even colder than the 3C that it was. Three days ago torrential rain and wind consumed the day. Yesterday? Heavily overcast, morning rain as well as wind, but the temperature nudged up to 17C, a big difference from 3C. So no hat, no gloves, no warm, woolly jackets. Today built on yesterday's balmy atmosphere. 

 

Still overcast, yes, but occasional burst of sun forcing its way through the cloud cover, and warming the interior of the house. And the temperature rose to 20C, surely a record for November 6th! It was a tempestuous day in other ways, since the results of the American election were in and firmly established that Donald Trump has returned to the White House. He's so unpredictable it makes us wonder what kind of unexpected and possibly impetuous decisions he'll make in his first week back in office. But we'll have to wait for his January inauguration to find out anything like that.

 

Irving is still in the throes of cleaning  up his workshop of years of  accumulated detritus. He's always been like that; creatively constructive, but loathe to clean up afterward, and waste-wood and coloured glass had a tendency to pile up. He also likes to save things; anything he construes as having potential for hitherto-unimagined use is set aside for another day. And there are times when he'll find those bits and pieces useful; waste not, want not.

 

 

Yesterday I made an eggplant-cheese-tomato casserole. I'd place that in a once-again, now-and-again category, it's so good; wholesome and fragrantly delicious. Any dish that Irving will eat with gusto is a winner for me. This time, I took the  trouble to peel the eggplant before braising it in the oven. It's actually not a requirement, but he prefers it that way. The casserole is easily put together in three layers of tomato sauce, eggplant slices and cheese. It's a savoury dish that we both enjoy. And a good way to use up tomatoes. The sauce is simple enough; chopped garlic cloves and onion simmered in olive oil, chopped tomatoes and bell pepper added, and also a half-tin of prepared spaghetti sauce. The eggplant slices are sprinkled with a herb mixture and baked briefly in the oven on both sides beforehand.

 

 

Today's ramble through the ravine with Jackie and Jillie was pure pleasure. A gentle breeze augmented the warm atmosphere. There's hardly any foliage left on the trees, now. And the piles of leaves that descended to the forest floor have mostly lost their brilliant hues, turning grey and limp and crusty in turn. There's some squirrel activity; despite the unseasonable warmth, they know instinctively that it's time to gather what they can for their winter pantries.

 

When we returned home, I decided, given the opportunity, to haul out the wheelbarrow and use the bags of sheep manure and peat that we had stored, to enrich the garden beds and borders. The weather was perfect for it; the soil had been turned and I was hoping that using it as compost would further dissuade the neighbourhood squirrels from digging up any of the tulip bulbs I planted last week. Mind, I had poured a little bloodmeal/bonemeal into each of the cavities before depositing the bulbs, and I believe squirrels are adverse to bloodmeal. I did discover that some of the bulbs had been revealed, the soil covering them dug out, but the bulbs themselves were still sitting there, intact.

 

Just about everything has been done in preparation for snow flying in. And there's satisfaction in that; everything shipshape. And just to emphasize how prepared we are, Irving's friend who works as a mechanic for the RCMP and privately has a business where he comes to people's homes to change their vehicles' all-purpose tires to ice tires was by this afternoon to do just that, with ours. 

 

A relative rarity. A day when we're forced to bypass our daily hike through the forests with our puppies, by circumstances beyond our control. And certainly weather falls into that category. Not only do Jackie and Jillie balk at being outside in the rain, but when it rains non-stop, and heavily, when it's cold enough that there's a chance the rain might turn to snow, it's inordinately unpleasant to be out at such times. So we had to forego our walk.

In a sense, we shouldn't have minded, since Mondays are house-cleaning days for us. Irving does the vacuuming and leaves the rest to me. For the past several days he's also been busy down in his basement workshop, having finally decided that it was past time to clear away the waste wood that had accumulated with his many projects. So he was downstairs cutting up the wood that lay in waste piles, so he could finally clean up the floor there where his saws sit. 

 

 

As for me, I felt a little less time-stress while doing the cleaning, with the knowledge that there was no need to race through the dusting, mopping and floor-washing. Actually because I had 'extra' time I decided I'd just go ahead and do other cleaning chores that aren't done regularly. And that included using Swiffer hardwood-cleaning wet wipes meant to be installed on broomlike appliances, only I preferred doing it on my hands and knees.

 

And while I was at it, I thought I might as well wash the floors downstairs in the basement; the floor of the basement bathroom and the large one in the 'recreation' room. These are all past projects of Irving's, installing drywall, room separators, plumbing, electrical work, to create separate, dual-purpose rooms out of the large, open cellar, after we moved to this house 33 years ago. 

I like to plan on what I consider to be quick-and-easy meals not requiring a lot of preparation on days like that. So for yesterday I put a Cornish game hen on the menu, along with an egg-noodle-raisin pudding, and asparagus, with fresh blueberries for dessert. The game hen only needs to be brushed with olive oil, sprinkled with garlic powder and mixed herbs, and stuck in the oven to roast. The pudding just needs the noodles briefly cooked, then whipped up with eggs, pepper and raisins.

 

When we awoke this morning it was to more rain. Rain continued for a few hours, then we cheered when the sun broke through, but that lasted only an hour before the dense cloud cover returned us to darkness. On the positive side, the temperature rose from yesterday's 3C, to 15C today, and since it was humid, it felt quite comfortably warm. Warm enough that our pups were clad in light jackets and the same for us. It felt like such a relief to be out on the trails this afternoon. Jackie and Jillie were clearly delighted, spurred on by the delectable (?) odours wafting at them from the wet forest interior.

There were chickadees about, and a loud chorus albeit off in the distance of crows, and we speculated that they were in an uproar about the presence of an owl; that's what often draws attention to the presence of an owl perched high on trees in the forest canopy, when they're surrounded by indignant, hostile crows berating and harassing them.

We stopped briefly several times to chat with an occasional hiker whom we've become familiar with over the years, updating us on what's been happening with them, or around their community, and when we stood there we were certain that all the signals for a return of rain were present. But as it happened, despite the wind moving bruised clouds above us through the brooding sky, we were able to complete our circuit of the woods without the discomfort of a sudden rain squall. All to the good.

 

 

 

The blissfully warm weather of the last two days was too good to believe, and now that cooler seasonal weather has taken its place, it will join weather annals of whacky unusual records for time-of-year. We're back to putting little jackets on Jackie and Jillie and good heavy warm ones on ourselves. Last night's thunderstorms on Hallowe'en Eve, together with a whomping wind sent the unseasonable warm weather packing. It felt so good yesterday afternoon raking up the piles of leaves that had accumulated on the driveway and front walk. Although it was a trial filling compost bags with wind gusts blasting the leaf piles back to their original, unraked positions.

 

Earlier in the day today, I decided to bake a plum pie. Santa Rose plums, big, red and juicy were on sale when we did our Tuesday food shopping, so I took half of the ones packed into the plastic container, sliced them into a pot with sugar, cornstarch and a small amount of water and let them simmer while we had our breakfast. When I put the pie together and arranged a lattice top crust, I washed the crust with beaten egg and sprinkled sugar lightly over it for a nice, finished appearance before popping it into the oven. 

 

I also prepared a bread dough, which is becoming a ritual for Friday, although the dough won't be used until Saturday to form croissants, to serve with a vegetable soup. Routine that reflects these Autumn months of cooler weather and comfort foods. I used honey, grated sharp cheddar cheese, olive oil, sesame seeds and dehydrated milk, along with the egg left over from the pastry crust wash. And the croissants will be whole wheat-inspired. The dough will sit in a covered bowl in the refrigerator until it comes time to roll it out, shape and bake it tomorrow.

 

When we exit the house with the puppies now, our eyes linger regretfully on what was the garden, our summer pride. It's all prepared for winter onset. Perennials cut back, annuals yanked out to compost, soil emptied from the garden pots and urns. What had been the garden looks dull, wan, abandoned. But for several still-perky little rose shrubs, still putting out exquisite roses. Cutting them back will be the penultimate task to complete the garden tidying-up. After which I still have tulips to plant. Which will bring us lovely surprises come spring of 2025.

 

Our  hike through the forest was beyond pleasant, despite the cold and the wind whipping through our jackets. Water in the creek was surprisingly low, given the amount of rain that fell last evening and overnight. But the forest floor was good and wet. The dry conditions of the past week left the forest in fine shape to absorb the heavy rain that came pounding down last night.

 

We had some visitors during our trek through the trails. Old pals that make a streak directly for us to confront Irving, the Cookie Man. They approach hurriedly, then plunk themselves down quietly and expectantly before him to the great excitement of Jackie and Jillie. They score big when there's an occasional fumble from hand-to-mouth. They're so excited about  the cookies, they sometimes bite them in half as they hurriedly take possession, and the half that falls can't be retrieved by them; Jillie will have beaten them to it. 

We noted that where we had seen a pair of Pileated woodpeckers several days back, the big old poplar that had hosted them now boasts a large cavity. The much larger and older willow standing right beside the poplar evidently holds out no promise for the appetite of the woodpeckers looking for insect and grub infestations.