I looked out the glass front door last night before hauling Jackie and Jillie and me up to bed last night around midnight and noticed a dark lump on the snow piled beside the front walk beside some snow-humped bushes, and tried to think what it might be. When my husband came up a short while after us because he had been busy chopping up bread squares and piling on sunflower seeds and peanuts meaning to leave them out on the porch after I'd mentioned there wasn't much left there, he told me it was a rabbit.

We both crept downstairs in the dark to observe the rabbit awhile, a small huddled creature resting comfortably in the snow, having, we surmised, taken its fill of the offerings on the porch. Its presence there at that time kept my husband from placing out the new offerings. We spoke about how nastily inclement it was last night, at -10C and a howling, thrusting wind making for a wretched atmosphere, yet a wild rabbit is able to withstand the cold.

After we'd read in bed awhile, my husband went back down to see if the rabbit had yet departed so he could open the door and deposit the new cache of bread, seed and nuts on the porch for others who might come along, and he was able to do that, the rabbit finally gone. For all we know he came back later. In any event, by morning's check there was little left of the pile. I'd inadvertently frightened a cardinal at the seeds yesterday. And a host of squirrels, red, grey and black come along regularly. Not so often do the raccoons, but we occasionally sight them too.

The wind was a cruel one yesterday, gusting at 70 kmh, although the temperature was a reasonable 0C, but with the wind it hardly seemed temperate. When we were out in the ravine with Jackie and Jillie it sounded like a locomotive roaring through the canopy, and the trees were bending furiously back and forth under the thrust of the wind. A good time to be alert for the sound of warning cracks that might mean a branch falling or even a tree trunk cracking off and crashing down. We've experienced close calls before under such conditions.

We had decided yesterday to head out to the forest right after breakfast to take advantage of the milder temperature, knowing by afternoon it would plunge back to -8C, making the wind feel even more wickedly icy. Even so, because we took an elongated route we were out a long time and despite the energy output began to feel the cold. Under 'normal' conditions, wind doesn't penetrate fully throughout the forest trails because of the valleys in the ravine. Yesterday was different, it most certainly did sweep through the ravine, sending icy shivers through us, freezing our faces.

Jackie and Jillie were layered in a light sweater, then their winter-waterproof raincoats and rubber boots. Because aside from the penetrating wind, there were sequential flurries and freezing rain and ice pellet events while we were treading the snow-and-ice-packed trails.

We did come across a few others out with their dogs, making the most of the opportunity to get out before conditions became more extreme. Later, in the afternoon, as the temperature continued to drop and the wind wailed and  howled so we could hear it through the fireplace, it made us feel pretty smug about getting out earlier and making the most of the day, and I think Jackie and Jillie agreed as they snuggled into comfortable drowsiness.