We've been literally bathed in sunshine for the past week. Brilliant, warming spring sun. That winter remains well ensconced within our landscape is undeniable, but we're on the lookout, as it were, for the inevitable whiff of spring on the horizon. Crows have returned from wherever they took themselves off to for the past few months -- likely the boreal forests.

A ravine-hiking acquaintance informed us yesterday that he'd come across a Barred Owl down in a direction opposite to where we tend to head, an area where beaver keep constructing their dams and harvest poplars. And that may very well explain the noisy gathering of crows we've heard lately since typically crows love to harass owls.

Under a brilliant blue sky and full-thrust sun rays the snowpack has been illuminated to the point where glancing at it threatens to do damage to one's eyes. I keep trying to remember to wear sunglasses, but invariably forget. My husband reminds me and I tuck them into a pocket or slide them to the back of my head under my headband, and then continue to forget them.

I find snapping photographs of the sun full-bore irresistible, I'm always looking for the perfect opportunity to grab the perfect frame and sometimes I find myself satisfied with the outcome. My camera always at the ready I still can't capture the antics of our two little dogs when they suddenly break out in a frenzy of action. They scatter too far, too quickly, the camera is too slow to respond and so am I.

We had a bit of a break in the temperature yesterday, it rose from a morning -12C all the way to -2, but the icy-cold radiating up from the heavy snowpack on the forest floor of course has its impact. In some areas where the sun is able to break through the forest canopy for stretches of time the ice on the trails is beginning to relent, the snow and ice turning to mush. But these are anomalous, not yet wide-spread.

On the first half of our circuit through the ravine with Jackie and Jillie yesterday we came across quite a few dogs, large and small resulting in little happy gatherings distracting the dogs from their preoccupation with rushing about to ensure they haven't missed any 'messages' left at the side of the trails.

So it was yet another lovely winter day, bright, crisp and the landscape quite, quite beautiful. I was reminded of how stark it will look when winter finally departs and spring moves in, tentatively at first then with growing assurance. The forest floor will be steeped in snow-melt and there will be muck everywhere. On the positive side, Jackie and Jillie will no longer need their boots against the cold. On the negative side, we'll have to wash their little paws every time we return from a jaunt.

And today? When we venture out into the ravine it'll be in the wake of the latest snowstorm which began in the early hours of this morning, not long after the clock was hitched forward an hour. A kind of double-whammy. We'd already had quite an accumulation by the time we came down from bed to breakfast. And it won't stop until mid-afternoon.