The quality of our lives is immensely enhanced by the opportunities given us to enjoy and to share with our neighbourhood the privilege of living close to a wooded ravined area of great natural beauty. We venture daily into that place of sanctuary and peace to walk quietly along trails among trees and waterways that change with the seasons.

Over the years, with the encroachment of encircling housing developments, the raccoons, grouse, quail and foxes we used to see are no longer readily to be seen. We can still depend on occasionally seeing raccoons, ample squirrels and chipmunks, the occasional passing duck in the springtime, and great blue herons as well as owls, bluejays, cardinals, pileated woodpeckers, crows, ravens, chickadees, goldfinches and nuthatches, to name but some of the birds and small creatures we're fortunate enough to come across. And, oh yes, the animal that remains our national symbol; beavers.

In the spring, we anticipate the arrival of spring flowers, a time of renewal and expectation; in summer other native shrubs and wildflowers take the place of the spring bloomers, and in fall the colours of the changing trees preparing to drop their leaves awaiting the inexorable arrival of winter presents to us the third face of the changing landscape.

Finally, the winter months arrive, where colour consists of a whitewash of snow gentling the landscape, muffling sound, startling the eyes with its brilliance and flash, lighting up the ravine at night so night-time forays are possible, with a light mist of pink colour hanging over the ravine, reflecting the lights of the nearby city, glancing up to the sky, then bouncing back into the ravine.