It presents as an unfailingly delightful spectacle. The entire landscape softly enveloped in a deep layer of snow, the trees outlined and each branch laden with fluffy newfallen snow. I judge that we're walking a full foot higher on the trails in the ravine now, using my familiarity with the normal height of tree markers that normally appear a full foot higher than they now do. Layer upon layer of snowfall has produced the usual winter landscape fully adorned with glistening white; just a little earlier this year than most.

The snow has been constant. In the last few days lighter snowfalls have occurred, lazily floating down on the landscape from the laden clouds. We've been given a respite from the bone-chilling icy atmosphere that has suffused the atmosphere for far too long, quite unusual in its tenacity and ferocity. The high actually reached minus-four-degrees Celsius by yesterday afternoon when we set out for an hour's romp in the woods.

We weren't exactly romping, and nor was Riley, though he hadn't needed boots at that temperature; his tiny paws are able to withstand that cold, but it's just on the cusp of when he does need boots to protect him from icing up. We came across far more people rambling through the ravine than we usually see, even on a Sunday. And with them were dogs we'd never before seen, and those we have become familiar with, as well. It was those dogs, all of them large, Labrador, hounds and Retriever breeds for the most part, that were happily romping through the snow, alert to the presence of other woodland creatures presenting as a chase-challenge.

All the trees were humped over with their burden of snow; tree trunks resembling ghostly figures. The landscape, under a dull grey sky was a monochromatic view of black-and-white, scenic and extremely still. As many people and dogs as we did come across, there were vast stretches where it was just us and the stillness of the woods.

There was wind, and it busied itself creating veils of snow resembling ectoplasmic creations of an otherwordly sort when it managed as it often did, to dislodge the buildup of soft snow on tree boughs that became an evanescent soft white veil as it fell to the ground.