Overnight Thursday, we were warned by the weather office, would bring us hours of freezing rain. On top of all the accumulated snow of the winter months and the exceedingly frigid temperatures that had made this winter an unusually cold and snowy experience in perseverance and a whole lot of shovelling, we were warned that Friday would see the freezing rain turned to ordinary rain as the temperature lofted up to a balmy two degrees Celsius.

Because of the freezing rain warning, all school buses in the area were cancelled. And throughout the day the rain just kept pelting down, aided by the wind to make for some pretty slushy and messy roads. The municipality had sent out front-end loaders to ensure that storm drains were cleared of their covering of ice and snow to be enabled to welcome and absorb the enormous run-off.

We felt badly for the birds and small animals. Whereas under normal circumstances we're hardly aware of how they manage to survive under inclement weather conditions, the fact that we now have feeding stations right at the front door, on the porch, and we stop at the glassed front door often during the day to witness the birds and animals visiting, has brought their condition directly to our attention.

The cardinal looked nothing like the glorious crimson feathered creatures we've been accustomed to seeing, instead what we saw at the feeding station was a bedraggled, utterly soaked bird. Red and black squirrels took shelter under the overhang my husband had installed to protect the seeds and nuts from becoming entirely engulfed, that temporary relief enabling them to secure all the food that was replenished and remained available to them.

The night before we had watched as the rabbit hunkered down on the porch to make good of the scattered seeds and peanuts. And this morning, after the rain had left the snowpack much reduced we noted that the tops of our composters had been set neatly aside, signalling to us that the area raccoons which had been hibernating over the previous several months had been awakened by the warmth and penetrating rain, to avail themselves of any foraging treasure of stale bread crusts, fruit and vegetable peelings and whatever else they might find to appeal to their palates.