Because it's been close to a week since snow has fallen and in between there was freezing rain and even rain as the temperature rose then dropped again, detritus sits glaringly atop the snowpack. And among the detritus is plenty of evidence that the winds that have whipped and roared through the atmosphere in the past several weeks have taken their toll.

Apart from dead branches that have fallen off trees, there is an inordinate amount of live pine branches that have been torn by the wind off pine trees. Strangely, it appears to be the pines that have suffered these losses. Spruce, fir and cedars don't appear to have been affected the way pines have been.

Although today, to judge by the thermometer, the temperature has risen to the same moderate height as it had done yesterday, the ample sunshine and gentle wind that yesterday hosted made it a beautiful day, whereas today the sun struggles in vain to assert itself but cannot get beyond the thickly opaque-white of the gathering snowstorm set to strike later this afternoon.

The wind episodes of chill ill-will are more than evident, so that thermometer measurement aside, the dampness and the wind have assumed an identity quite at odds with the temperature. It has turned out to be a wretchedly nasty day. Even with the new down-filled mittens lined with special gloves that my husband just bought for us, my fingers were cold.

To add to the diminished pleasure in today's ravine walk was the sight of the forest floor littered by newly-felled ash trees. Municipal work crews have been working intermittently to remove the trees, immature and mature alike, that have succumbed to the Emerald Ash Borer, an intrusive foreign species of predator that has slowly killed our ash trees.

Although the ravine has a large assortment of both conifers and deciduous, with ample oak, maple, willow, poplar, Hawthorn, apple, birch and beech, among still others such as yews, and junipers among the spruce, fir and pine, the predations of the beetles on the ash trees represents a tragic end to that species. Taking down the dead ash trees has left gaps in the forest beyond sad.

And although in time other trees will grow to fill the gap left by the ash, they will be missed. They've become another victim of globalization, of pest species that have managed to make their way beyond their natural habitat, moving from Asia to North America in the transport of freighted goods and products from across the world.