After two days of torrential rain the sun finally broke through the clouds Sunday. With winds gusting to 70 kilometres  per hour, I wondered if there would be any leaves left on the trees.

Surprisingly there were still a few, and even more surprising to me is that many are still green. To me the advent of Fall and leaves changing colour is a September thing. Here we are in late October and it doesn’t seem to have happened. I wonder if my youthful memories are in error, or if a later fall is part of climate change.

Whatever the reason for the lateness, Sunday after lunch with the sun shining and the temperature having risen to 10 Celsius (which cut the chill of the wind), we ventured out into Ottawa’s urban forest.

My wife keeps track of these things, or more accurately her phone does. So I know that we covered seven kilometres in 94 minutes. No the fastest of paces, but we were out for enjoyment, and I kept stopping to snap photos.

When you live in Ottawa you are never far from nature. We drove for ten minutes to reach our starting point. The trails through the forest are all connected. We could have gotten there on foot, but that would have taken at least a couple of hours. Admittedly it would have been a pleasant walk, but there was only so much time before dark.

I am hoping we can do it again before the leaves all leave the trees. (I think they fly south for the winter like the Canada Geese.)