A real grab-bag of weather conditions yesterday greeted us on Saturday when we were met by completely blue skies, not a wisp of cloud to be seen, the sun reigning supreme, warming the atmosphere and lightening moods for the Easter week-end. The wind, though fairly benign with a temperature of 14C, heralded a change in the atmosphere which was yet to come.

The weather report, however, gave ample warning of a complete change-over in the afternoon with wind and rain expected to dominate. So we decided, directly following breakfast and its associated clean-up to head out for our daily ravine walk, a little early, to ensure it wouldn't be interrupted by rain. We were, it seems, almost the only people with that in mind, since throughout the duration of our hour-and-a-quarter ramble there was no one else to be seen.

We did briefly encounter the normally good-natured Husky, Jango, with her person, meriting a short stop and the exchange of the usual pleasantries. (She's the one several weeks earlier who had cornered and caught a little red fox, before someone intervened to save it from Jango's hunting instincts.) So Jackie and Jillie did have the opportunity to come across a furry friend, but that was the only occasion for the day. The assumption is that since stores were closed on Good Friday, the entire universe thought it a good use of time the following day to cram into shopping malls.

Thereby missing their opportunity for the day. It wasn't long after we returned home just past noon when the sun was crowded out by dark clouds which soon opened into a deluge that kept on giving copiously for the rest of the day. And on into the night. And on again, this morning. We expect we'll still come across ample snow and ice when we venture into the ravine, hoping for a break in the rain by this afternoon.

Our youngest son called last night to tell us he was setting off this morning from his home in Vancouver for the three-hour drive to the Skajit River where he planned to spend the next few days, canoeing and camping on a river sandbar or gravel bed alongside the river. He usually undertakes a trip like that once in the spring and again in the fall, conditions permitting. The urge to get out into the natural surroundings so accessible throughout British Columbia never fails to grip him. It's both the naturalist inclinations and the scientist's curiosity that propels him.