There was a time -- and it must be at least a dozen years ago now -- when one of our neighbours who lives down the street as a regular daily trail-walker in the ravine used to take a break halfway through his ramble, sitting on a bench overlooking one of the bridges we cross to get from one point to another over Cardinal Creek. We'd often walk with him, talk with him on the trails as much as on the street, though we seldom see him out and about now. He's into his late-80s.

He had a bout with cancer, with heart disease, has a bad back and no longer gets about as he once did. He was one of the most familiar faces on the street, acquainted with everyone, knowing everyone's background, prepared to talk up a storm of impressions and ideas with anyone who was willing. He also had a companion dog at one time, a shambling female golden retriever, and lost her to cancer just before his own health began seriously wavering. His wife, quite a bit younger than him in a second marriage, balked at having another dog, knowing he was in no shape to look after another one, and she had other plans for herself. She's given to taking at least several trips a year to exotic places, and he never accompanies her.

We were accustomed at one time to seeing him walking with others as well, when we were newer to the area and he had experienced several years' residence before us. He also knew everyone who used the trails at that time. And their dogs. It seemed odd at first when he no longer ventured out into the ravine, because he was so given to the beauty of the place and had volunteered as someone who would keep the municipality informed with respect to the state of the ravine, reporting trees that had fallen across the trails, or that someone had been in with an ax and partially chopped down a tree, or that neighbourhood children appeared to have attempted a fire.

Today, a windy, cool and beautifully bright day, that bench beckoned us. So, as he had done so long ago, we sat on "Barry's bench", because I needed a break and it seemed a pleasant enough thing to do. We sat until I 'caught my second wind' and we chatted together, and our two little dogs sat with us. The sun glinted off the ice limning branches and conifer needles. We'd had freezing rain this morning, and then the temperature dropped. Creating a landscape of ice-covered surfaces. Which also made parts of the trails icy and slippery as a result.

And then, on we went to complete the circuit that takes us roughly an hour to complete daily.We had the ravine to ourselves, today. No one else was out and about, and that's fairly unusual.