Yesterday, being Saturday, a day including time for leisure for many people, combined with the fact that the temperature had risen appreciably albeit under a heavily overcast sky, there were quite a few people from the neighbourhood out in our local urban forest, walking their dogs. Some we recognize and have a long-standing, or alternately short acquaintance with. Others are entirely new to us, and it's interesting to see them with their companion dogs out enjoying the atmosphere in the wooded ravine.

The snow we had experienced earlier in the week has pretty well melted, there's very little of it remaining. What we do have now is fairly wet and mucky trails, given the overnight frost and the subsequently-relatively-mild day-time highs. Nothing, however, much takes away from the pleasantness of being out in the fresh air and watching the birds: woodpeckers, cardinals, chickadees and nuthatches, fly in and around the trees.

There was one little dog, whom we had never before seen. A tiny white mix between a toy poodle and a bichon frise, even smaller than our toy poodle Riley, animated and excited beyond repression; he was up and about, around and under everything, happy to be alive and to be able to experience all the interesting smells, sounds and sights that the forested ravine offers to anyone interested enough to enter its valued precincts any season of the year.