March has the potential to continue delivering wintry weather to us here in the Ottawa Valley, but it is also undeniable that night-time lows as well as day-time highs in temperature are marking time toward welcoming spring. We no longer experience the frigid excesses of deep winter, and we know that spring, however tardy it is wont to be here, will arrive in its own good time.

When we delve into the ravine these days the creek is constantly swelling with the added burden of the gradual meltdown of the forest snowpack besides carrying off the constant snowfall of the past several days. The forest itself is exquisitely beautiful, showing off its new mantle of snow to admirable perfection.

Yesterday when we were cruising through the trails, the overburdened branches of conifers kept unleashing accumulated bundles of snow over our heads. They tend to be heavy, since they are clumps of snow, sometimes hefty indeed, and they're falling from a height so they tend to make quite an impact. Of course, we've been wearing the hoods of our snowjackets since it's also been steadily snowing, so the hoods take the impact of the clumps.

Once they hit us, they swiftly disintegrate in a small explosion of transformation from clump to freed crystals. These little events take a split second of action and they tend to elicit laughs from us, particularly if, as happens on occasion, the residue then falls atop one of our little dogs happening to be trotting alongside us, momentarily startling them.

Usually, they don't, though walk alongside us, rather tending to race ahead in a brace of black fuzz, eager to see what's ahead or having sensed the presence of others coming toward us on the trail, long before we sight or hear them; our puppies' sensory capacity to smell an additional aid to giving them an alert that another dog is nigh.

We usually complete our ravine circuit in an hour or so, more or less depending on conditions or how we feel about proceeding forward or cutting our hike short, feeling pretty good about everything; life in general and our good fortune to live right beside such a natural treasure in particular. And we have reason to believe that Jackie and Jillie feel just as we do...!