Driving on area arterial roads, or for that matter anywhere within the city, you get an appreciation of just how the extreme weather conditions that exemplify an Ottawa winter challenge the integrity of asphalt surfaces. Yesterday when we drove along the Eastern Parkway to reach the Byward Market in downtown Ottawa, the road surface was so disturbed a drive that is usually fairly smooth was instead continually reminiscent of what it's like to drive on country gravel roads.

The constant winter freeze-and-thaw cycles wreak damage everywhere, from producing large cracks across roads, to deep potholes. We drove along ongoing ridges created when those freeze-and-thaw events serve to separate road surfaces from their original integrity. It's impossible to make such a drive without being very conscious of road damage, aside from the fact that alertness is required to avoid if possible any potholes that could pose a damage threat to vehicles.

Of course municipalities coping with weather conditions by spreading salt everywhere for safety reasons add to the damaging effects, not only on roads, but other surfaces, as well as buildings and vegetation which salt-spray also damages, not to mention one's own garage floor where salt brought in on tires produces the inevitable deterioration there. To avoid rust resulting from these winter efforts at safety conditions, we've been having our vehicles winter-oil-sprayed for years, otherwise within a few winter years vehicles become proverbial rust-buckets.

After our ravine walk with our two little dogs yesterday, we drove to Byward Market for our usual expedition for art and antique publications, specialty cheeses and bread products from the incomparable Rideau Bakery that continues to produce the bread products we've been familiar with and vastly prefer over commercial products pretending to be bread, since our childhood.

It was snowing lightly when we were in the ravine, not too cold nor windy which made for an exceedingly pleasant hike through the snow-invested forest. As we drove along the Eastern Parkway, there were some good views of the mighty Ottawa River that bisects Ontario from Quebec. Some open-water areas where the local water treatment plant emits warm water into the river, and where the rapids are located; otherwise it is ice-and-snow-covered, a great wide, long expanse of white.

In fact, the entire landscape appeared white, a pale opaque ice fog enveloped the area, giving a muted aspect to everything, shaded in white. The shop we frequent for magazines and newspapers carries every conceivable single-interest type of publication, and we've gone there for many years. They also sell tobacco products discreetly, even more discreetly Marijuana appurtenances. The store is owned and operated now by an patrician-in-appearance Somali man, courteous and helpful.

All of the usual stalls selling produce, plants, handicrafts, exotic imports and other items that appear from spring to summer to late fall are absent at this time of year. Which makes for more parking spaces available for shoppers meaning to access the many little boutique-type shops selling cheese, meats, fish, produce and other products, along with a multitude of cafes and restaurants and bars. Although there aren't the crowds one sees during the spring and summer and fall months thronging to the Market area, there are still ample numbers of people striding along the streets that comprise the area; a magnet for tourism and locals to congregate.