So quiet on our streets. A really quiet Sunday morning downtown.

So few dog walkers out and about. With shorter days and longer nights, more darkness and, therefore, increased danger of having “the dreaded fall.” Under the pretty white snow lurks ice — one simply cannot be too cautious.

Even Sweets & Swirls at our fabulous community centre was closed. No oatmeal cookie, or two, for me.

One comforting constant in our town is our abundance of trees. And with some maple and oak species, lots of fallen leaves to rake.

It took two free walking tour guests from Lindsay, here on a two-day motorcoach trip with Cardinal Lakeshore Tours, to enjoy “White Christmas” at the Shaw, to point out our abundance of fallen leaves.

Except for them, the group members were living the good life at the Prince of Wales Hotel, taking advantage of the top-class service and shoulder-season group pricing.

Most of the group members were enjoying a “morning at leisure,” but the energetic and observant Suzanne Barker and her daughter Mona Lisa were up and at ’em, hungry to learn about the rich history of our town.

We had walked from the historic Courthouse on Queen Street down Regent to Queen’s Royal Park, discussing the burning of our town in 1813, and the Underground Railroad.

Admiring the peaceful neighbourhood and learning why Niagara-on-the-Lake was known as “America’s attic” just after the Civil War.

Indeed, several Confederate army generals had come up here to dodge the danger of being convicted of treason. My goodness, even Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, was here for a while.

I should ramble back to our two energetic and inquisitive walkers from Lindsay.

They had no idea that Hollywood had filmed “Dead Zone” here in 1983, based on the Stephen King novel. The stars were Martin Sheen and Christopher Walken, and our “historic” gazebo was left behind.

As locals, most of us tend to fall into the trap of taking our trees for granted. Not so for Suzanne and her horticultural and history-hungry daughter. By the way, they were the two most positive people I have met this year.

As we started to walk east down Ricardo Street from King Street, we were confronted by literally hundreds of brown yard waste bags.

In front of one house, count ‘em, some 62 bags full of leaves. And several neighbouring houses also had impressive collections of bagged leaves ready for pick up by our efficient and confusing regional recycling squad.

My mind wandered, and the three of us had a rambling conversation, wondering what happened to all the leaves before raking and recycling became all the rage every autumn.

Yes, we talked about composting and the natural cycles of nature. But wouldn’t forest floors have been totally overwhelmed, without human beings raking and raking and raking to keep the world neat and tidy?

Now I am going to really ramble. Please stay with me.

We have many unique and fascinating people living with us in our town. One of my favourite neighbours during my years living in Chautauqua was Holmes Hooke, who continues to make NOTL a very interesting place.

He and the Chautauqua Oaks team were well described in a recent issue of The Lake Report (“Letter: Chautauqua project preserves nature for the next generation,” Nov. 27).

In a previous life, Holmes was a spoken word artist, touring the U.K., Canada and the U.S., performing at hundreds of festivals, theatres, clubs and schools.

A verse from “Plant a Tree”:

“Now you don’t need a Ph.D

Or an online course in botany.

Just follow the simple recipe to plant a tree

And plant a tree

Plant a tree.”

Let us remember the many benefits of trees. It is not my intent, and I do not have the knowledge, to ramble further about trees. Leave that to the experts.

We have heard a lot about this subject.

Please, slow down and admire our trees:

On our Commons, so many wonderful trees that were thoughtfully planted in straight lines.

The lines of maple trees on Oak Drive approaching the Circle/Amphitheatre. Way out on Airport Road near Niagara Stone Road and “the airport.”

Every one of these now beautiful trees was planted by a visionary person at some point.

Think about it, and plant a tree. Or several trees.