These glorious, sun-soaked days of early March are not hard to take. True, the night-time temperatures plunge, as happened last night, under a clear sky with a three-quarter moon and Venus shining bright on the horizon to minus-18-degrees, but recover nicely enough by the time early afternoon rolls around.

The blue sky of yesterday alternated from time to time with the onset of wind-harried snow flurries, so during the time it takes us to traverse a normal ravine round, we experienced bright skies and also whitely overcast skies with flurries swept directly toward us by an extremely vigorous wind.

Still, the high temperature of minus-6 C. brought out quite a number of ravine ramblers, just like us out to enjoy the day and the relative balm of an atmosphere that makes such outings comfortable. Jack and Jill pay far more attention to the detritus that wind blows down off the surrounding forest canopy than they do to the broader landscape but that changes as soon as someone is sighted, walking toward us. All the more so when someone is accompanied with a companion dog.

Older dogs are invariably leery of the presence of rambunctious little puppies with their tendency to jump all over mature dogs in an exuberance of social greeting. But Charlie was happy to allow Jack and Jill to leap and romp all over and around her in a confusion of black hair mingling with her own shaggy beige-black-brown coat on her huge frame.

Just as Jack and Jill are given to nuzzling and swallowing snow, Charlie too loves its presence as most large dogs tend to; she burrows herself into the snow, lapping up its presence, validating that it isn't only puppies who favour the all-encompassing blanket that will within the space of another month, melt into spring's melt-off swelling the creek coursing through the ravine.