So now, cold and snowy Ottawa so recently struggling to live up to its reputation as the world's second coldest, snowiest national capital in November wondering where all the snow was, and then December arrived and we experienced a succession of freeze-and-thaws, and finally January and it seems we're finally now acquiring the usual accumulation of snow that we are familiar with for an Ottawa winter. With that snow comes incredible beauty.

With that snow comes incredibly irritating consequences. Primarily shovelling oneself out of the snow to permit access and egress to one's home. It's a challenge. On snowy days like Wednesday when the snow continued throughout the morning, afternoon and evening, as soon as shovelling is done the wind and the blowing snow simply join forces to ensure that the snow reappears where you'd just created some space.

When we arrived at the entrance to the ravine yesterday afternoon we were more than pleased to notice that enough other people had been out to forge a decent trail, unlike the day before when we were mostly breaking trail ourselves. Before we got to that point, though, there was a bit of a blip caused by the snow plows clearing off the street and dumping piles of snow at the access point from street to ravine entrance.

The need to clamber over the newly-created snow-'gate' is a familiar one. Once enough people have taken that route the hills blocking access will be less prominent -- unless a following snowstorm occurs, which means it will gradually build to challenging proportions. No challenge for Jackie and Jillie, however, and off we went. Off they went, scampering excitedly down into the ravine, we following.

The howling winds of the day before had raked most of the snow from the forest trees, but enough yet remained that the enchanting aspect of a snow-covered forest was still visible, ornamenting the landscape. The high for the day was -3C, with just a slight wind, so the atmosphere was comfortable and the newly-trodden trails nicely negotiable without too much trouble.

Although at one point when we'd climbed one of the hills, resting for a bit at its crest before continuing on, a younger woman with a spunky little terrier hauled herself up that same hill, huffing and puffing, commenting how difficult it was to ascend with the new layers of snow. Actually, it was the day before, when the snow was falling thickly, when it was difficult to clamber up that hill, since for every step forward we slid backward until finally achieving the top.

She was the only other person we came across, and her little dog had a bit of a playtime with Jackie and Jillie before we parted company going off in different directions. We knew, given the moderate day and the allure of the snowy woods that many others would be out before the day was over, taking the opportunity to enjoy this wonderful natural resource bisecting our community.