Me (left, Angie (right), Button and Riley following, climbing mountains in New Hampshire, 2010

What a day! Though it's cold, the morning was sunny, albeit with an icy wind. Yesterday hit a record low for the day; never before in the recorded history of winter-time temperatures had Ottawa ever experienced such cold. Although when we set out for our walk early this afternoon it felt icily chill given the wind. Once we had attained the forested ravine the wind disappeared and we were impressed with a feeling of spring in the air.

Tomorrow will be a bit warmer than the minus-three degrees we had today. Tomorrow, Environment Canada has warned us, we will have a snowstorm that will dump another five to ten centimetres of snow on us. But today, today was just glorious. By the time we exited the ravine, having circuited the ravine in a large loop for an hour, I was warm enough to pull off my gloves and head band.

And then we decamped briefly to the Sally Ann, and both of us came away with some interesting books. I came away with one by Cormack McCarthy (The Road), one by Alistair MacLeod (No Great Mischief), another by Roddy Doyle (Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha). And one by Jonathan Rauch (A Search for the Soul of Japan), and W.H. McNeill's The Rise of the West, A History of the Human Community.

When I informed our granddaughter, she reserved the McCarthy novel for herself ... after I read it, of course, and I've been cautioned to treat it with respect, not to fold corners, bend anything out of shape; to be delivered to her in the mint condition that it and she deserve.

And then she told me her news. An acceptance by University of Toronto. As though she hasn't been agonizing sufficiently over her acceptances by Dalhousie University and York University. Now she has to bend her mind to all the pros and cons yet again over which she will attend. But I'm betting it will be University of Toronto.

She's already busying herself once again poring over the on-line information regarding residency availability and meal plans. Though she did mention as well she still intends to complete her application for Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. She's out to conquer the world of academia.