So after I finished baking those giant cupcakes -- chocolate mocha, my husband's favourites -- and made some bread dough to refrigerate until using it to bake croissants to go with a good hearty soup for Sunday evening -- a short-cut I employ, preparing the dough a few days ahead -- and then starting a chicken soup for dinner for Friday night, there was a bit of daily kitchen and bathroom clean-up, bed-making and other little chores.

All that done with, off we went for an afternoon jaunt in the ravine for Jackie and Jillie to have their opportunity to sniff and snuffle along the forest trails, occasionally indulging in bursts of energetic fervour in their constant competition to determine who would arrive first at a designated spot only they are privy to.

It was -14C when we set out, the high temperature for the day, with light wind. But oh, what a wonderful sky, an ocean of pale blue with a brilliant golden orb sailing within it, pretending to warm the winter-chilly atmosphere. The wind hadn't yet blown all the snow off the forest trees, so the last snowstorm's snowfall nicely limned branches and boughs to emphasize that creation of a winter-wonderland landscape we so appreciate.

The forest is fast asleep under its white, protective mantle, insulated underground are all the delightful perennial plants, flowering and fruit-bearing that so delight us when spring and summer arrive. For the time being we have the enchantment of winter spreading its snowy mantle over the landscape, the sun glancing off pure white snow, not yet prepared to degrade once late winter brings milder temperatures and the slow progress of snowmelt.

Shortly before our circuit was completed for the day in the ravine we had a pleasant encounter with an old ravine acquaintance walking her own little dog Angus, a small fellow with a mind of his own that keeps persuading him to wander beyond sight, and her son's two terriers. Jackie and Jillie spotted them a long way off and ran excitedly to greet them.

When we caught up to them finally the two terriers who know us well since we more frequently see them out with their human companion, surrounded enthusiastically us with their own greeting. The untoward weather of extremes we've been experiencing this past month of January has kept quite a number of people from entering the forest precincts, until equal measures of guilt and curiosity drive them back to venture into the forest with their dogs who have sorely missed their favourite playground.