Back into the deep-freeze. We enjoyed normal January temperatures and conditions for as long as the weather held out for us, and now we're stuck in an extreme cold trough, and there we will stay for the remainder of the week, at the very least. Tonight we're dipping down to minus-29-degrees Celsius, the high today and tomorrow during the 'warmest' parts of the day will ascend all the way to minus-20.

And whereas once that would never have deterred us from the determination to forge ahead and enjoy an hour in the ravine, admiring the surrounding forested scenery, it most certainly now does. When we were younger we would stride along at a good pace and that activity would ensure we burned enough energy for warmth. I am capable of perambulating about at a pace resembling a vigorous stride only on the flat portions of our circuit. It's a struggle to get uphill and this is, after all, a ravine. The uphill clambers necessitating that I go it at a much, much slower pace. I'm still burning energy, but our inability to progress at a pace that would keep us warm in such frigid temperatures is severely hampered.

And the same is true of our little dog who, at any temperature lower than minus-6-degrees (less if there's newfallen snow) requires that he be geared with boots, otherwise his tender little paws freeze and so does he, halting just where he happens to be, needing to be picked up and carried. In really frigid temperatures with underfoot icy conditions, or deep snow, when he's booted his progress becomes even slower and he's likely under those conditions to keep stumbling, often falling flat on his little face. Looking at him it's obvious how frequently he has fallen by the snow covering his small face whenever it gets planted in such a manner before he picks himself up and begins plodding along again.

Because it's so cold, heartier meals are called for, so yesterday I roasted a little Cornish game hen accompanied by an egg-noodle pudding and a baked acorn squash, with sliced strawberries and pitted fresh cherries for dessert. Today, there's a vegetable-thick pasta sauce simmering on the stove for spaghetti with minced chicken meatballs and a small vegetable salad. I stewed a fruit compote of pears and plums for dessert, flavoured with allspice and cloves; the competing fragrances overwhelmed the kitchen.

And to inject another note of colour, my husband installed the latest of the stained glass windows he had designed, this one primarily of hollyhocks, to sit in the kitchen and remind me of the colour and texture we so enjoy in our summertime gardens. And he's busied himself working on the design of succeeding windows, a series to feature birds. Those panes to be inserted within a series of interconnecting panels he designed and installed between the kitchen and the breakfast room.