It was unexpected. We just caught a surprise glimpse of the huge majestic bird rising from the creek and then it was gone, flown into the upper reaches of the creek where the freshly leafed canopy hid it. We had been on the lookout for it weeks earlier. At least one Great Blue Heron passes through each spring on its way north as the migratory birds return from their southern winter escapes. We thought, logically, we'd missed it this year. And there it was. Briefly.

We'd had all-morning rain and lighter rain into the afternoon. Although the temperature was supposed to rise to 18C and the thermometer outside our sliding doors actually registered that, the wind was fierce and it made the atmosphere feel much colder yesterday. By the time we were ready to embark on our afternoon ravine ramble the clouds had cleared and the sun had emerged. So off we went.

Aside from everything in the forest being well and truly drenched so that droplets continued to fall from trees, the wind was helping the moisture disappear at a good rate. To our surprise the forest floor looked no more full of rainwater ponds than it did the day before, and we could see that despite this newest rainfall, the atmospheric ambiance of a wetland was slowly abating.

We were, as usual, grateful for the window of opportunity given us by this break in the weather to allow us to enjoy a good brisk ramble along the forest trails. We'd thought the Lilies-of-the-Valley clustered as is their way around the trunks of the forest trees had finished blooming, but discovered that some of the clusters were now sporting quite robust floral stalks, larger than we'd seen before. The wild variety are quite unlike the cultivated lilies; more delicate, smaller, the foliage shaped differently.

We also came across -- and almost walked into, as often happens when you're a little unaware -- a tiny yellow-green caterpillar dangling from a silken thread; it's the way these caterpillars get around; they spin a thread of silk, and let the wind waft them here and there until they find the tree they're interested in preying on. It's numbers, not size and relative appetite that makes them a threat to trees.

I took an enlarged photograph, then a video, but the result wasn't very edifying. The action of the minuscule creature, in flexing its body repeatedly as though attempting to clamber upward upon its silken thread was kind of fascinating. In the video it appears as a blur, magnified many times greater than its actual size. That's the thing about being out in nature; you come across so many interesting creatures of nature.

By the time we arrived back home the wind had picked up even greater speed, and the sky was once again becoming crowded with dark clouds. A few hours later, around six o'clock my husband drew my attention to a dark cloud. We learned later that a few blocks away from where we live, a tornado had touched down, close to the river.

There had been an Environment Canada tornado alert, and it mentioned the areas that should be on alert, but it seems that the tornado identified as heading toward Gatineau stayed on this side of the Ottawa River instead, and hit Orleans.

Many trees were uprooted on the street affected and a number of homes had their roofs torn off. And there was general carnage in that very narrow corridor where the tornado struck; cars crushed by trees, backyard objects blasted about, sheds destroyed. Nature's tantrums.