After the alert issued by Environment Canada yesterday morning for an extreme weather event, we hoped we'd be able to get out for our walk in the forested ravine across from the street our house is on before the storm struck. We knew the storm was scheduled to strike in the afternoon, but delayed our foray into the ravine because there were so many other things that needed to be done.

My husband wanted to cut the grass before rain struck for one thing, and I have my usual household tasks for a Wednesday that I dislike delaying, preferring to treasure our leisure time after all is done. So, after my husband returned from running a number of errands, it was still early in the day and we set out with some degree of confidence, but not entirely convinced we'd manage to get back from our hour's trek in the woods unscathed.

The sun still shone intermittently, although clouds were gathering in what appeared to us to be an unseemly hurry, and some of them looked downright threatening. Our little dogs have their expectations and principal among them is their daily jaunt in the woods. Their eager anticipation prods us to embark on these daily rambles in the forest.

An additional incentive is the sheer pleasure we derive from being there. Not only in witnessing their antics, but enjoying the ambiance. And never without my camera, since hardly a day passes when we're in there and don't see something notable. We may know our circuit fairly intimately in all its many details, but each and every day there is something different to be seen and remarked upon between us.

The only person we saw out was a young woman walking two very large dogs, one a Newfoundland now a year old which despite its size is intimidated by Jackie and Jillie's excited barks when they come across other dogs.

We only quickened our pace on one occasion, hearing a distant thunder clap, convinced it would make haste to dump on us, given the ominous look of a now darkening sky. Still, it didn't happen. It wasn't until half-past three much later in the afternoon when we were at home that the house got completely dark and the rain came pelting down, and the puppies responded every time they heard a thunder clap.

Brianna Smith (left), along with her mother and aunt, inspect the beloved tree. Years ago, her aunt was married under it. One of Ottawa's best known trees in the city, which sits grandly in the arboretum off Prince of Wales Drive was split in half by the storm Wednesday. Julie Oliver/Postmedia.

It wasn't, in our area, a remarkable storm, just one of many, a pleasurable-to-see but not to be caught-out-in rainstorm. The local news, however, tells an entirely different story. The west end of the city received the brunt of what was, in fact, a violent storm, one accompanied by high winds destructive in their force. Sufficiently so to bring down some venerable old trees in Ottawa and in the process injuring several people.