The puppies will just have to content themselves today with looking out the door onto the porch and the gardens as they're being drenched in relentless rain. It was expected. While we were out on our afternoon hike through the woods yesterday and happened to exult at the wonderful day it was through expressing our appreciation at the afternoon appearance of the sun, Barry gravely informed us that we better enjoy it while we could, since tomorrow would be a downer. He whipped out his cellphone and showed us the latest bulletin from Environment Canada to prove it. He likes to keep up-to-date.

It was a damper, so to speak. And today that damper has arrived with a vengeance. We have to coax Jillie to venture out to the backyard, while Jackie is pretty breezy about the rain. Soon as he re-enters the house he leaps onto the deacon's bench we have sitting in the breakfast room piled with towels. The deacon's bench is one of Jackie's primary spots that Jillie avoids. Instead, she makes a bee-line for her bed, just beside the bench, to be wiped down from the rain.

I've been busy in the kitchen. I decided to bake a plum pie, to use up the plums and the rest of the peaches imported from Chile that I bought and which are fine for cooking or baking with, not so good for eating otherwise, since they're hard and fairly tasteless. The earlier seasonal crop available at the supermarket from Chile were excellent; these not so much, but they do make a fine pie interior. I used two peaches, six plums and pre-cooked them briefly in 1/2 cup of granulated sugar mixed with two tablespoons of cornstarch and a third cup of cranberry juice. Once thickened I added two tablespoons of butter and a half-teaspoon of brandy flavouring. When it cooled I prepared pie dough, rolled it out and baked the pie, filling the house with fragrance.

Yesterday was the loveliest of days for a hike through the forest trails, and we took our time and stayed out for a prolonged period, coming across others we know, including a mother and daughter we haven't seen for at least a year, with their two little pugs. I must admit, of all dog breeds pugs are among the most aesthetically unappealing, but that's my opinion, obviously not theirs. The pugs were born about the same time as Jackie and Jillie and they get along fairly well through not thrilled to see one another.

Younger than ours but comparatively huge, Nova came along too, a muscular white German Shepherd whose demonstration of pleasure at seeing us always moves us to marvel at his discriminating intelligence. Not surprising that Nova is the companion of a former military man, someone who stands on the human scale as Nova does for canines. Rob is a formidably large man, well-proportioned, tall and imposing.

We surprised even ourselves when we looked up while descending one of the hills to discover that a number of not-too-mature trees were sporting bright red sprouts on the way to becoming foliage. This is typical of maples with their colourful spring 'flowerets', but we hadn't realized that elms too have  bright red sprouts. It's rare to see elms around here, since decades ago Dutch Elm Disease arrived and killed most of the wonderful, huge old elms in this area. These are young disease-resistant survivors, obviously better equipped by nature not to succumb to the deadly effects of the disease.

We strolled happily along the trails on either side of which on the ravined woodland heights the forest floor was steeped in pools both from meltwater and the overnight rain that had drenched the atmosphere. The amazing thing to us is the speed with which those impossibly deep snowpacks layered with ice have vanished, leaving a scant few areas still locked in ice.

As for spring prospects for say, the next two weeks, Barry told us not to hold our breath. He had it on the best authority that the first two weeks of May will be nothing to celebrate. Much cooler than usual, more rain, though we've had ample, thus far. And summer will be late coming this year too. Which isn't too dismaying, given that winter is gone finally, and we're grateful for the days that are sunny and so far the emerging vegetation informs us that nature hasn't forgotten her obligations to us.