It is hastily premature to draw any conclusions from the weather pattern that has descended on our landscape in the past several days, to make the assumption that Environment Canada's prediction that we will be enjoying an early spring this year, might actually occur. Yet we do appear to have been plunged into atmospheric conditions that make it seem so.

The above-freezing temperatures we've enjoyed since Saturday (I know, it's only been three days, with more of the same predicted over the short haul) and the clear blue skies with a warming sun have all conspired to drive people out-of-doors to seek that close-to-nature experience, one they have shunned all winter.

On the other hand, warming day-time temperatures combined with night-time plunges below freezing that we've been experiencing, represent perfect conditions for sap running back up into Maple trunks, so this should be a bumper spring for the maple-syrup producers.

Amusingly, we came across a middle-aged couple on one of the forested trails yesterday, on snowshoes. These aren't the snowshoes we were accustomed to wearing, hand-made in Canada via traditional means, the wide bear-paw type meant for deep snow conditions, to facilitate trekking in woodland conditions. These are small by comparison, manufactured of metal, not wood. Even so, the two snowshoers were proceeding awkwardly, clearly not comfortable in their use.

But ours is an urban forest, and there are many people who venture out, albeit representing a minuscule percentage of the population living nearby, the several days after a sizeable snowstorm, the trails tend to become nicely packed down. This is not the kind of snow conditions conducive to the use of snowshoes, in any event. The trails were nicely packed and firm, making the use of snowshoes completely redundant.

And so it was yesterday, as we trekked comfortably along the trails. The male of the pair chortled at the great price of their snowshoes, procured through Canadian Tire at $100 each pair, whereas snowshoes from Mountain Equipment Co-op are vastly more expensive (I reminded him that MEC attempts to source their outdoor gear products from Canada and Europe rather than cheap knock-offs from China).

He seemed inclined to just stand where he had stopped on their passage through the trail, clearly bushed from the effort he had thus far expended, while his wife went on a few yards before, to "break trail", he said, and it was all I could do to keep from breaking out in laughter at the absurdity of his words. If he wanted a real snowshoeing experience, I told him, they should try snowshoeing up at Gatineau Park, the nature preserve accessed through a half-hour drive from where we stood.

The dogs we came across are far more sensible and attuned to the natural world than most humans, thank heavens. Lilly, the white German Shepherd, kept plunging herself into the snow, swimming in it, luxuriating and glorying in it, to the puzzlement of our two little black poodles which, though bred originally as water dogs have demonstrated no interest in water, though they love the frozen stuff.