We keep zig-zagging from extremely cold and windy atmospheres prevailing for the better part of a week, with or without sun, then suddenly limping into milder weather bringing with it freezing rain.
Snow events and even freezing rain present no challenge to embarking on hikes in the forest, but rain certainly does, requiring winter-grade raingear for us and for Jack and Jill.

Snow being whipped into our faces is not bad, but when it's rain it's not quite so attractive. When we spoke with our son in Vancouver last night he said he'd had his kayak out at wreck beach, but because of high wind and choppy water he'd had to confine himself to kayaking over to the UBC side. Rain, he said, had replaced the previous and unusual spate of very cold weather.

As far apart geographically as we are, we're undergoing similar atmospheric alterations. Just a little bit of nature's full panoply of weather events; here in the Ottawa area we're accustomed to sudden polarized changes in the environment. That old saying, if you don't like the weather right now, just wait a bit ... holds true, though, whether you're in Alberta or Newfoundland.

It was milder than the day previous when we were out in the ravine yesterday. We came across a young woman whom we've become familiar with over the past four years or so, walking her German shepherd cross, a mild-tempered dog that usually has more patience with Jack and Jill's frantic antics when they see a dog they know, than they deserve.

Occasionally she is accompanied by her partner, a younger man who sometimes takes their dog out on his own. At one time they had a golden retriever as well, but it was elderly and is now gone. She told us yesterday that this area is where her partner grew up, that as a teen he used to roam through the ravine with his friends, and they'd be involved in all kinds of juvenile-reckless behaviour.

It's more than likely that ten or even twenty years ago her partner would be one among the adventurous young boys who set fires, destroyed trees and quaint rustic signage (never replaced) and basic exercise equipment placed in several locations, along with benches for people to relax and passively enjoy the area. The only things that were ever replaced were the few benches, and they have long since also been mutilated by a later crop of area juveniles.

But boys, doing things that boys tend to do when they're among a restless daredevil-feeling bunch, do grow up. Sometimes, no doubt, they look back at how they comported themselves in public areas in such destructive ways with regret,   more often likely, with a mental shrug. He's a nice young man, good-natured like their dog, and pleasant in conversation.

She, older than he is, no doubt provides a levelling contrast to his former carefree attitude, helping him to reach a social and emotional maturity and perhaps even personal sense of responsibility and respect for nature that he can pass on when they have offspring.