Unlike some other Northern Hemisphere countries like Norway and Finland whose winters can seem dark and oppressive because of a lack of sunlight, Canada can claim with full reason to do so that winters are, by and large though cold and snowy and windy, also abundantly sunny. Even in the winter, the appearance of the sun has a warming effect, even though most days of searing icy cold are also sunny.

Today is not an icy-cold day, the atmosphere has warmed up beautifully. In the early morning hours the temperature registered minus-14C, but by eleven in the morning it had risen swiftly and steeply to minus-2C degrees. downright balmy. And headed for plus-1C by afternoon.

We decided to head out in the morning, and the atmosphere felt so mild, even the wind felt beneficent for while it mostly affected the forest canopy in the ravine we were trekking through, we hardly felt it at ground level.  And the rays of the sun, when they reached us, felt caressingly warm.

Bilberry creek was running freely, dappled with light ice around its edges. No layers of accumulated snow were left on any of the trees, but ample snowpack was in place on the forest floor and atop anything that lay horizontally.

Altogether it was a most pleasant way to spend an hour, walking the firm and icy trails of the ravine, our balance assured, thanks to the cleats we pull over our winter boots.

While acknowledging that seasonal affective disorder (SAD) does have a deleterious mood and attitudinal effect on many people, perhaps if we set aside the perception that winter imprisons us and ventured out into its wide open, natural spaces, there would be fewer people to be beset with depression through the winter months.