We decided after our earlier-than-usual ravine walk last Saturday to devote a few hours on a brief mission downtown at Byward Market. Usually we don't head out there on a week-end; long experience has taught us that this is one of the busiest tourism spots in Ottawa. But we reasoned it was a very cold day with a brisk wind and tourists wouldn't be around in abundance at all the cafes and restaurants there or ambling about on the streets usually stuffed with traffic. Not that it's only tourists, local Ottawans are drawn to the area since it's the place to be seen.

The drive to get there is always, for me, a major attraction. Often we see red foxes, wild turkeys, deer and rarely a coyote in some of the fields abutting the forests alongside the Eastern Parkway. The Parkway itself is not without attraction, sided by forest and some really lovely and old tree specimens. Even in inclement weather there are always hardy bicyclists and even runners using the highway or the road that runs alongside the Ottawa River.

The RCMP musical ride stables are located congruent to the highway as is the National Aeronautical Museum and alongside it, a small airstrip where light planes are mostly parked at this time of year. Occasionally as we drive by we see one of those light planes buzzing close overhead coming in for a landing. The windsock at the airstrip was horizontal. And the sky overhead that platinum-white that informs the onlooker that snow is in the offing.

There are giant Christmas wreaths on the gates of  the Governor General's residence. Softening somewhat the impression left by the appearance of the U.S. Embassy across from Byward Market, looming like a piece of brutal architecture resembling a nuclear reactor. In the distance, across  the Ottawa River, beginning its winter freeze-up there is the shore-sight of Gatineau, Quebec and it is close to that shoreline that fishing huts will begin to pop up on the eventually-frozen river for winter sport and entertainment.

In fact, when we exited our garage to begin the drive we went directly into a snow squall. Flurries had entertained us while in the ravine, but they picked up as the day wore on. And despite the heavy cloud cover, the occasional eruption from squall to flurry, the sun accompanied us on our journey, shining a diffused light through the clouds. The proximity of sun and clouds and snow made for a very interesting juxtaposition.

At the market the goal was to visit a number of shops; first off the magazine shop that sells newspapers and journals of all descriptions. The description my husband seeks out is art and antiques and there he has many to choose from among, but it is only two that always capture his interest, and they were in stock.

From there a street over to his favourite cheese shop which like the magazine shop sells cheese from a generous number of national and international sources equalling a wide choice of cheese types. And there are always some brands and some types on sale at mouth-watering prices, so away he came with a choice selection of cheeses. Then on to one of the fish emporiums and he was looking for smoked herring this time around. Nowhere else in the city can you find such an array, and he scored well there, too.

We had found a good place to park, not too distant a walk from his favourite sources. Because Jackie and Jillie had been so anxious over being left at home again we'd decided to take them with us since my husband was driving the truck and unlike the car whose motion seems to make them nauseous, they're perfectly fine in the truck. So of course I sat there with them while my husband did his shopping, me with my usual curiosity taking stock of people walking by in their various pursuits, and also reading the local newspaper to pass the time.