Our assignation with spring has finally arrived. Hope springs eternal in the minds of Canadians yet we know that the final decision when to appear rests not on our eternal hopes but on nature's decision-making and in making her decisions in this part of the world, she all too often prefers to delay, mocking our confidence that winter is prepared to depart.

The official calendar date may be one we celebrate tentatively, but it is a tenuous one; there may be creeping signs of spring's imminent presence; early migratory arrivals, a scent in the air, warm breezes, a warming sun and lengthening days, but the temperature begrudges us relief from winter's tenacity and snow-and-ice-storms and lashing winds tell us we've still a wait to be tolerated.

There's little option but to wait and endure the last of winter's onslaughts. And when fine weather finally arrives we're beside ourselves with pleasure.  And we leave our comfortable homes in droves to get out into the out-of-doors to bicycle, jog, ogle the returning birds, stroll along the riverside, spread blankets and picnic, amble along pathways and soak in the longed-for pleasure to be had feeling free within the landscape we so treasure, feeling the warmth of the spring sun.

Willow trees along the Eastern Parkway are fuzzed with that light yellow halo that tells us it won't be long before foliage appears; they're always the first to respond to longer days and a warming atmosphere. The further we drove yesterday along the parkway beside the Ottawa River toward the Western Parkway, the more ice could be seen along the shoreline, not yet melted.

On the paddocks of the famed black horses of the RCMP musical ride, Canada geese have settled to find edible bits of seed, and we continued to see the geese the further east we travelled, close to the highway on newly revealed greensward, nibbling at the grass and whatever else they find compatible with their taste after their long journey from south to north. Traffic hurtling by, and people strolling along the pathways did nothing to disturb these great birds whose size gives them such an advantage over other avian species; which birds can challenge them, after all? They graze serenely, oblivious to the noise and activity around them; quite a sight.

We passed the National Gallery with its 'Maman' giant spider sculpture, the Royal Canadian Mint, the Chateau Laurier and the Parliament Buildings, then the Library and Archives building and the Supreme Court, the new Holocaust Memorial and the War Museum, before continuing on our journey to our destination, a small shop catering to the needs of those who produce stained glass windows. A lovely trip, in all. Quite wonderful to see people out and about after a too-long winter.

Some of whom are tourists visiting from elsewhere, and we also see buses that convey them in their numbers from all over North America, others coming from further abroad, venturing into a Canadian landscape that is finally turning the corner into spring. A finer day would be hard to imagine; slight breeze, high of ten degrees under a lovely blue sky.