We've been experiencing, the past several days, winds of extreme ferocity. It whips through the atmosphere, along with rain, or sun, with low or moderate temperatures, impossible to ignore. Yesterday, during our ravine walk the wind incessantly clacked the denuded tops of trees together, their clatter atop that of the wind barging through creating quite the cacophonous symphony. Alerting us also, at the same time, of the potential danger inherent in such wind-vulnerable areas.

We found that the milder temperature and all-day rain that had fallen several days ago had finally eroded the thick ice of that portion of the trail we had been forced to bypass, enabling us now to simply skirt the ice and continue on our familiar circuit. The alternate routes we had been taking were fine, but we are creatures of habit and prefer to use methods and byways we are most familiar and comfortable with. Although when we do deviate the perspective seen from the different angles is interesting and motivates little Riley to alert curiosity.

It is amazing what a difference a day can sometimes make in the natural world we inhabit. Where, suddenly one day, trout lilies make their presence under the trees, given the opportunity to flower under the sun's influence, before the trees leaf out and leave them in shade. We noticed their presence a day earlier. And yesterday, there before us, were the first stirrings of the trilliums, even one clump where the flower bud was visible, hanging in anticipation of its crimson bloom.

And then the surprise, though not all that surprising, to see a venerable old pine had been sundered, its snag still defiantly raised to the sky, the top half lying shattered on the forest floor, across one of the offshoot trails. Sad to see one of the forest stalwarts that had been around so long and seen so much occur there, crumpled in the bleakly hostile negativity of death.

Twenty minutes later, as we were ascending the last long hill to reach the street beyond, we heard the long, agonizing rip-and-rustle of another tree behind us, succumbing to the brutal wind. It did not fall, but remain suspended, upheld in the close, sympathetic embrace of surrounding trees.