We've had so much snow this winter -- close to 300 cm -- that with all the shovelling needing to be done so constantly, the pathway leading to our two composters in the backyard was neglected and soon snowed in entirely. That resulted in our being unable to access the composters to deposit our twice-weekly loads of compost from the pail I use to gather organic kitchen waste.

Instead, we diverted that waste to the compost pails that the municipality picks up every week to divert it from garbage since it's all organically compostable. Which means that raccoons were no longer able to access our backyard composters as they regularly do. We had noted that they were making far less frequent visits, however, and thought they might be semi-hibernating. And it was so cold in the mid-winter months everything in the composters freezes solid anyway.

My husband puts out nuts, seeds and small squares of bread multiple times daily on our porch for birds and squirrels to eat. In the early evening hours rabbits come along. And later in the evening and through the night it's been raccoons diverted from the inaccessible composters to the porch. Most birds and rabbits are skittish so we try to stay away as much as possible from the front door so we won't alarm them. The squirrels and the raccoons aren't the least bit bothered by our presence.

Now that spring is finally, slowly, becoming evident with milder temperatures and rain mixed with snow events, our backyard composters will eventually be released from the heavy snowpack surrounding them. And the raccoons can return to their evening pursuit of edibles that suit their taste.
Years ago we would see raccoons, foxes, pheasants, grouse and other ground birds often in the ravine, We rarely do any more other than for catching glimpses of a fox as it fleet-foots it over a trail in the distance.

There's still beavers there, damming up the stream in places, and others besides ourselves have seen deer and wild turkeys on occasion, and coyotes, but not us, though we've seen them all now and again further afield. Our encounters are restricted for the most part to the presence of companion dogs making their way through the forest trails, just like Jackie and Jillie do, out on daily walks in the ravine.

We had hastened to get out a bit earlier yesterday because of threat of impending rain. Doing the trails in snowy conditions with a snowstorm in session is fine, and beyond beautiful. Trotting along the forest trails under a denuded canopy in cold weather in a freezing rain is anything but. The ambient temperature can be -2C at street level, but with the thick snowpack interspersed with ice that still dominates the forest it's much colder resulting from the snow and ice radiating their frigid presence within the ravine.

Still, it was a pleasant enough day albeit heavily overcast, and we stayed out for an hour and a half, opting for an enlarged circuit yesterday. A few others were out with their dogs, but not many. And sure enough in the late afternoon the rain developed and continued through the evening and on overnight. It's what we saw first thing in the morning and it has dominated the day, today: dark, overcast, raining.