It's always pleasantly exciting to welcome a new snowfall. And the snow that fell, though not copiously on Monday night along with rising temperatures was more than welcome. We needed both to combat the conditions imposed on this landscape of ours in the last several weeks with weather conditions conspiring wickedly to leave us with all surfaces lacquered in a thick layer of ice, so hard and treacherous it was impervious to the spikes on our cleats pulled over our boots.

People had ample horror stories to tell of close encounters with the peril of slipping, sliding and tumbling on the icy surfaces. And needless to say local hospitals were kept busy tending to people arriving with the results of bad falls. It's particularly worrisome, of course, for the elderly who venture out of doors in urban centers in the hopes of doing a little grocery shopping for themselves, half-expecting the enterprise will land them in trouble, and finding in many instances those expectations to have been predictively accurate.

As for us, we were delighted once we emerged from the house. We evaluated the situation, bearing in mind that though the morning had dawned with a 0C temperature with a nice, but modest 4cm snow covering, the first thing we would be well advised to do to celebrate the new year of 2019 would be to venture out immediately for a leisurely and beautiful-to-behold walk in the woods, then have our breakfast on our return.

The reason being was that the weather forecast was for the winds to pick up to considerable gusts much beyond what the morning had brought, and the temperature to plunge to -14C. So off we went, to the great excitement of Jackie and Jillie who had found, like us, that walking along the street to begin a tour of local byways and encountering noisy road traffic rather than the peaceful serenity of a forest was definitely not to our liking.

The soft, evanescent blinking of new snow on the trees capturing what light was available under a pewter sky always makes us catch our breath with its bewitching qualities. Our boots crunched securely into stabilizing snow, though the underlying ice manifested itself visually from time to time, but our confidence had been restored in our ability to remain upright and we simply set aside the concerns we'd nursed so recently about broken bones.

Soon conditions began to change, as stray fingers of sunlight haphazardly stroked their presence through the forest canopy briefly illuminating the snow before once again disappearing. The clouds were beginning to break up and from time to time the sun could be seen doing its utmost to cast its brilliance over the snowy landscape.

We came across a handful of other trail walkers, all enjoying the atmosphere, everyone fully appreciative of the wonderful opportunities we have so close at hand to nature's best qualities. Jackie spurted everywhere in his anxiety not to miss anything, and it's doubtful there were any 'messages' left in the snow and the floor of the forest shrubbery that he failed to interpret.

The soft snow captured the sounds of our voices, our son and my husband speaking of many things together as we all strode with comfort and confidence through the trails, each one of us at various times pointing out areas of interest to everyone else. My husband again pointed out the beauty of the bittersweet vine's berries now outlined in snow as it twined its way up and around tree branches. The creek tributaries remained frozen but now had a thin layer of melted ice overtop.

Our son pointed out the swaying tree canopy as the wind sent its brute strength through the masts of tall old conifers. From time to time the sound of two trees clacking together informing of the strength of the gusts produced their unique forest chorus. In the distance there was a hoarse cry of a raven. A pileated woodpecker rattled somewhere off in the forest, its metronomic cadence telling us it wasn't too far away.