Fooled us! Having got halfway through March, with plenty of snowfalls, but moderate temperatures prevailing hovering around freezing, it never fails: we Ottawans think we're on the way to spring. Oh, we very well are indeed on our way to spring, but spring has become a fussy old maid given to shyness and prevarication, and winter is a like a crabby old man in a foul mood, determined to stay where he feels comfortable, and that's that.

Parliament of Canada; Centre Block

Little wonder that people who emigrate from other countries where climate is nowhere near as dramatically oppositional to human comfort as ours is, become disbelieving when winter arrives, plunging them into a kind of half-misery, half visually admiring state, once this city and its environs become plunged into a deep blanket of cold, snow and ice. Don't they then miss the temperate weather zone they've come from!

This morning when we came down for breakfast the thermometer read -7C. Tomorrow the daytime high will be -7C; we get a break today, it will rise to a balmy -4C. On the positive side, we've got clear skies and a beaming sun. Yesterday, as it was all week, we enjoyed a very reasonable 2C, but with wind, yes a very cutting wind that made the outdoors seem much, much colder throughout our afternoon walk in the forest.

Canada used to be considered the second coldest and snowiest capital in the world, after Ulaanbator, Mongolia. Ulaanbator retains its crown at number one, but Ottawa, thanks to the emergence of sovereign nations after the dissolution of the USSR, and the warming effects of climate change, now ranks at number five, though to anyone living here it doesn't seem so. But yes, the top coldest and snowiest capital in the world remains Ulaanbator at -49C, second is Astana, Kazakhstan at -48C, third Minsk, Belarus at -40C, fourth is Moscow, Russia at -39.4C, and only then does Ottawa come in fifth at -37C, though a few short years ago this city experienced a low of -58C.

From sixth to tenth place, Finland, Romania, Lithuania, Estonia and Greenland bring up the rear. All cold cities as their various countries' capitals, but not quite to the extent that the top five are.

Yesterday's hike through our neighbourhood ravine was uneventful and pleasant, albeit a bit sharp despite the temperature, given the wind bursts that sent fingers of creeping cold through our clothing. Just as well we had dressed extra-well, because we needed that protection. Our two little dogs didn't mind the cold one bit, and were just as happy to be out and about on the forest trails as they always are.