We've another month of official autumn before the calendar agrees we've approached winter, but for us here in this area it's as though we're in the dead of winter. Yesterday's daytime high reached -6C but a blustery wind that blew pervasive snow everywhere made it seem much, much colder. Last night the thermometer dipped to -17C, and that's cold for November.

Today? A lovely winter day. Snow has stopped falling, and the wind has moderated to a mere whisper, and the sun is full out in a cerulean sky. Oh, and that temperature high for the day? A balmy -10C, set to fall again this coming night closer to -20C.

Yesterday we were unable to venture out. But we knew what it would be like out in the ravine, since the weather visited us up close and personal, its entry directly into the house unopposed by a wide open space of around six feet square, while two doughty and professional workmen extracted the old sliding doors to install new ones that wouldn't take the strength of Hercules to move, merely a flick of an index finger. What a clean-up job in the aftermath since all the detritus that resulted from replacing the entire outer casing of the original doors had to be painstakingly removed and the boisterous wind did its best to scatter it everywhere in the breakfast room and the kitchen.

Just as well my husband had installed a wall of glass doors between the breakfast room and the family room, as well as doors between kitchen, family room and dining room. Closing those doors meant that only the kitchen and family room became freezers, adjoining rooms maintained a fairly even heat, relatively speaking. And though the family room is open to the upstairs, the second floor was hardly affected.

Today invited us to get out for a walk on forest trails. Jackie and Jillie were extraordinarily well behaved (for them) yesterday throughout the five-hours-plus that strangers were in the house. Oh, they barked all right, but settled down eventually. And wanted a lot more immediate attention from us than is usual. They missed their walk. But they wouldn't have enjoyed it all that much, given the force of the wind dashing snow everywhere and the temperature just at the cusp where their tiny feet freeze.

Yes, it was colder today at -10C, but barely a whisper of wind, and the warmth of the sun soothed as best it could. At that temperature though, it was on with those little rubber boots for out little dogs. A woolly sweater under Jackie's winter coat because he's so skinny, not a scintilla of fat to keep him warm. Jillie's another story altogether; sturdier and with ample girth compared to her brother, so her winter coat alone sufficed.

And off we set with them into the ravine. As usual they scampered helter-skelter down into the forest overjoyed to be out and it appeared to us, enjoying the protection of the boots against the iciness of the frozen, snow-trampled trail. Along the first of the trails, over to the first bridge, a clamber to the top of the second hill, and there they pause, to see if anyone's following down below. Any hint of movement will set Jillie off to bark her silly head off, Jackie following suit.

The sun behind us threw long shadows at two in the afternoon. There didn't seem to be much distinguishing the shadows thrown by the forest trees and those that outlined our two forms as we moved along the trail on the upper flats.

We came across only one other person, a woman we've been acquainted with for years, but whom we hadn't seen in many months. This was her first venture into the ravine in many months, in fact, since she avoids bringing her large black dog along the forest trails throughout the summer months. She hates the thought that ticks might linger there and fasten themselves on her dog. We explained that the deer ticks that produce Lyme disease are a spring phenomenon but she didn't look very convinced.