We slept in late this morning. Too late to bed last night. It's me, mostly, spending hours in the evening writing my blog entries. It's become a habit, one of long standing, at least a decade now. I value it because it gives me so much satisfaction. It's a mental challenge to decide what I mean to write about each day and at the same time it makes me feel oddly fulfilled that I commit to it. The blog that I dedicate to literature, posting short fiction, commentary, book reviews and poetry is a different kind of challenge of much longer duration, and it's been going for longer than the political and social commentary blogs.
In any event, I really do dislike sleeping in, although it's necessary for our well-being in having enough sleep on those occasions when we retire too late at night. Irving doesn't mind, he usually listens to lectures or current affairs discussions or watches some kind of drama on his little portable computer. The puppies are always fast asleep while we're both busy. Jillie could sleep forever, but Jackie gets a little restless when midnight approaches. He wants to go upstairs to bed, but won't, until/unless we do too.
We had, as usual, a leisurely breakfast after our showers. Jackie and Jillie eat first. Not just their kibble, and bits of fruit and cooked chicken, but they also, between them, share an egg; fried, scrambled or hard-boiled as a 'second breakfast'. Then they busy themselves cadging from Irving while we're having our breakfast. I've given up protesting, try not to notice him slipping them bits of melon or egg from his plate, or toast under the table, when I'm 'not looking'.
Neither of us was particularly busy today, since it's Saturday, our 'day off'. We dressed Jackie and Jillie in their winter coats, halters and booties and made off for the ravine for our daily tramp through the forest trails at mid-day. A day that brought light snow flurries followed by clearing skies and full sun to brighten the house interior. For a change, there wasn't enough wind to make the daytime high of -5C seem colder than it was.
We'd have appreciated a decent snowstorm. Nothing spectacular mind, just enough snow to cover the ground, say about 10 cm at the very least. That would help our traction on the trails, on the ascents and descents. The underlying ice on the trails becomes more and more exposed as the days go by without a refreshing snowfall. Our ice cleats strapped firmly to our boots help immeasurably -- we wouldn't even attempt to traverse the trails without them. But even with the icers the trails have become so slick and slippery we can feel the icers having problems getting a grip and there's the occasional aborted slip.
The puppies evade the iciest portions of the trail, searching out areas with sufficient snow clumped over the ice to make their gait slip-free, and their little rubber boots help. I try to navigate the trails by avoiding the central portion of the trails when it's possible, where the ice is the slickest. Irving is less concerned over a fall than I am, despite my urging him to take awkward side trails as I do.
We haven't been seeing too many other hikers out lately in the woods. Unsurprising, since not everyone has icers and people would prefer striding along with confidence in their gait, not continually scouting out opportunities to avoid disaster. We did see in the distance when we were up on a raised portion of the ravine, looking down over a descent we had negotiated earlier, someone taking to sliding down the hill on their rear end, rather than risk a fall. Clearly, someone lacking the protection of icers on their boots.
We saw no birds, much less squirrels or any other creatures; hunkering down in this weather. We see more squirrels, birds and rabbits on our front porch and side stairs than we do in the forest, these days. They come to visit for the offerings of bread and peanuts that Irving puts out regularly. We most often see the rabbits at dusk, crows, juncos, chickadees and cardinals throughout the day, and black, grey and red squirrels in the mornings and afternoon. Our puppies consider their presence an offence against their stewardship of our property.
Once Jackie and Jillie had their salads I turned my attention to dinner. And nothing is more palatable at this time of winter than steaming hot and flavourful soups. So today it was a garden-vegetable soup to simmer on the stove until dinnertime. Chopped garlic cloves and onion in olive oil simmering with herbs, then celery, red bell pepper, snap peas and tomatoes, a bouillon cube and bay leaf does it. The fragrance of the soup pervades the house with its promise of a nutritional and good-tasting evening meal.
