Although for the most part our gardens remain steeped in snow and ice, there are growing patches where the snow and ice have succumbed to the power of the sun. Now, the soil is beginning to thaw, released from the frozen grip of winter. And as it does we can see the bright green spears, tiny as they are, of emerging lilies, and the larger, more assertive red/green of tulip foliage spurting through the soil. Grape hyacinth's slender spears are beginning to look as though it won't be long before the bright purple flowers make their appearance.

In the forest, the snowpack remains deep in most places, just as it does on our front lawn, with some notable exceptions. Changes, however, can be seen from day to day, where what starts out as a tentative patch of snow-free forest floor one day, takes courage from the milder temperatures now prevailing and the warming effects of the springtime sun to grow their freedom into sizeable patches of bare ground revealing the orange needles of last fall's shedding of pine trees.

It's a bit of a shock to the eyes, actually, accustomed over the winter months to monotones of sheer white but it's one we will swiftly grow accustomed to.

There are those among our ravine-hiking acquaintances who are like us, given to taking our time along the trails through the forest. Some of them also, like us, take huge pleasure in noting the details that the forest constantly reveals. Few, however, actually notice the wildflowers that will shortly make their presence, delighting us no end.

Others simply hurry along, committed to the physical exercise involved in trail-hiking, determined to be healthy and prolong their lives with quality of health outcomes, avoiding the chronic conditions that are hastened by inactivity and lethargy.

We have a tendency to take our time, to look about us, to watch and enjoy the continual antics of our two little companion dogs. In the process we are aware of much that occurs in the natural world, from plant to bird to animal life as everything submits to the rhythm of their natural cycles, we a part of them, however much removed we make ourselves in the artificiality of our manipulation of the natural world that succours us.