Year after year it happens. When will we learn? Never, it appears. When balmy, sunny weather finally appears, we draw the hastily-unwarranted-by-experience conclusion that cold, windy, miserable conditions are gone for good. Goodbye winter, nice to have known you for another year. And of course, there's a flurry of activity, scrambling about for warm-weather gear and cleaning the old cold-weather ones you plan to put away until winter returns.

Along with our own winter jackets I washed the heavy, winter harnesses and rainproof winter jackets that our two little furry scamps wear. On came their new, light harnesses, and no jackets, hurrah! Who could have imagined the bliss of carefree warmth and sun would be one of those one-day wonders? Well, we should have, but didn't.

We saw people out and about later in the day, wearing light tee-shirts and shorts. The kind of precipitate spring fever that is so infectious.

Seems you can fool some people all of the time. Yesterday it was cold, with an icy wind. So we dressed appropriately albeit grudgingly, back into almost-winter clothing. Layered underneath wind-proof jackets. Hats, gloves, the works. And out came those winter harnesses and jackets.

If Jackie and Jillie were confused they didn't share that with us. Patiently, they submitted to those coats again and the harnesses. And we were off. And once we delved into the ravine we felt fairly comfortable even when the wind whipped across our faces. We missed the sun, of course. And thought how much more comfortable it would be, even with the cold, if the wind weren't so insistent.

But every walk through the forest trails, in any kind of weather conditions, is always an experience we're grateful to be able to appreciate. The spring cold, unusual though it is, no longer withholds encouragement from the forest plant life to continue its inexorable return. And every day we take those trails we can see more green both on trees of all dimensions and out of the forest floor.

And Jackie and Jillie were pleased to meet up with Nova, their friend who when they first met him was only slightly larger than their size, and now he towers over them. Nova is always glad to see us, rushing from a distance to greet us and romp about a bit with Jackie and Jillie. He is a splendid beast, Nova is, an exemplary personality and a beautiful specimen, both.

Later on in our rambles we came across another friend with her three Border Collies, and when that happens the five dogs, her three and our two, swarm about collegially for awhile before we exhaust topics for discussion and move on our separate ways. Our friend Sheila hadn't realized how cold it would be when she entered the ravine for one of her and her husband's three daily walks with their high-powered dogs, and she felt the wind.

We keep hearing a resident owl calling both while in the ravine and from our backyard. We'd enjoy seeing one of them close up and personal, as we have before on quite a few occasions, but for the last ten years, although we know they're there, they've been more elusive than in the past.