Signs of Times

According to the trees, autumn has arrived in the Ottawa Valley. Just a week ago, it was not so, but this morning, when we took Tim's coffee and bagels to the park where we sat in the car for a spell listening to the CBC, the colouring of the foliage had most definitely begun.

Aside: we were listening to Michael Enright on The Sunday Edition. He was discusisng the plight of custodial granparents with his guests. The upshot is that more and more grandparents are raising their grandchildren with little societal support although it is very expensive to raise kids — more than $160 000 to raise them to adulthood in this era. The way things are, the state gets to save on the large cost of foster parenting and offers almost no compensation to custodial grandparents.

Cuppa and I then took our unfinished coffee cups on a little walk through the park, and the chilliness of autumn was definitely in the air. Although there will be warm days yet, I trust, within a short week or so we have gone from summer attire to long pants and jackets. However, we found a sunny bench by the Canoe Club and enjoyed the autumn-like freshness before returning to the car and home.

An even a surer sign of autumn is that I actually allowed my body to touch Cuppa's in bed last last (no not that way ... she was sleeping). You see, we are a hot couple (no again) and require clear and distinct separation (something akin to church and state) much of the time, but, last night, with temperatures lowering to 4°C/40°F, I actually required a little external body heat and snuggled right up — okay not right up but sort of up.

Although we seldom last that long, we strive to keep the furnace off until the end of October. I wonder how long we'll be able to last this year?

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(The park was still mostly green, but, as these two photos show, there were a few spots of significant colour.)