Yesterday's all-day wind- and rain-storm certainly acted out the deciding role in how barren the forest would look post-storm. The rainfall was fiercely copious and never-ending, the wind whipping sheets of rain against the front of the house. We imagined how the force of the wind would be clacking tree tops together, how the tall tree trunks would flex, lean slightly and dance, encouraged by the wind. We waited in vain for a window of opportunity when the rain might slacken off and finally stop for a short while before resuming, as it often does, but not this time around.

We get a little restless, all of us, when the weather becomes so inclement that it isn't worthwhile going out into it. That kind of ferociously miserable weather just isn't conducive to enjoying a ramble in the woods. Rain and wind lashing our faces and creating hazardous underfoot conditions underfoot in a landscape of countless ascents and descents doesn't make for an enjoyable occasion.

There's no way of explaining that to Jackie and Jillie. Jillie, for her part, shrinks at the very absurdity of going out in the rain into the backyard. Jackie is mostly indifferent to rain, but even he risks being miserable facing down a storm. So we stayed home. Finding plenty to do to keep us occupied of course. And the puppies slept for the most part, just occasionally challenging one another to a duel of paw-cuffs or a mad dash-about in the house.

When we woke this morning it was once again to a dark house. No sun to blaze cheerfully through the windows of the house, lighting the rooms at the front of the house to the extent that I always do a double-check that we haven't mistakenly left a light on. Dismal. The good thing was that though the backyard was utterly drenched for our puppies' first foray of the morning, it wasn't raining.

The morning temperature was 9C, and seemed much kinder because the air was so moisture-saturated. The forecast was for a sunny afternoon and a high of 14C, but we decided to forge ahead after breakfast and have a morning walk through the forest trails. A coverlet of bright new leaves on the forest floor spoke volumes about the role of the wind and rain of the day before.

The landscape was slick with rain, the trails slippery with sodden foliage, and though the sky remained darkly overcast, the forest interior seemed bright enough, subdued light managing to filter through the canopy to the bright leaves illuminating their colour in reflection of their rain-inundated state. The creek was running wide and full, burbling over the little cascades produced by fallen detritus that tends to gather at certain points as it winds its way through the forest.

We took our time, enjoying the atmosphere and the feeling of lightness and freedom that accompanies these daily forays. A companionable solitude tends to settle over us. We watch the puppies as they pad along in front of us, alert to the possible presence of as-yet-unseen intruders, though we are the intruders, not the squirrels whose presence occasions a spurt of action now and again on their part.