Unusually, we were too busy on Tuesday to seriously contemplate taking Jackie and Jillie out for their daily ravine ramble through the forest trails. They'd just had their hair cut and it seemed so short to us, making them appear vulnerable to the cold on a -7C afternoon with howling wind whipping the ten cm we'd received in an early-winter overnight snowfall, into every crevice and corner of the suddenly-white landscape.

We'd also gone out to do the weekly grocery shopping and that is time-consuming, after which I put on a beef-potato-carrot stew to cook and prepared an acorn squash to accompany it, then rolled out bread dough I had refrigerated for that purpose, to bake cheese croissants to go with the savoury stew. We decided we'd give a hike through the forest trails a pass for Tuesday, as a result.

Wednesday, though? A different story, the furious wind gusts had subsided and the temperature 'soared' to -14 after a night-time low of -17, but in comparison to a relatively milder freezing point but with howling wind, it just seemed more tolerable. And when we asked Jackie and Jillie if they'd be interested in going out for a hike in the woods, their response was telling; at the very least reflective of their personalities.

Jillie, resting on the sofa, was noncommittal as usual, but her brother's response was a head-whipping
!yay! And so we prepared to haul ourselves out for an hour or so trekking through the snow-filled trails in the forest. On with sweaters overtopped with winter jackets and finally rubber booties for tiny feet needing protection from the combination of snow and chill. As soon as Jillie's little boot-clad feet touched the forest floor she launched herself into a mad dash down the long hill into the ravine, Jackie in hot pursuit, their orange-booted little feet pumping like mad.

Jackie's bout with illness saw an energy-depleted little dog, lethargic and disinterested in anything. Yesterday, he was rejuvenated -- at least well on the way to recovery -- as the energetic quirky little dog we know him to be. He leaped enthusiastically into the powdery-light snow and he sniffed about, racing headlong down one trial and through to another. And when he's in racing mode Jillie can barely keep up with him.

It's both amusing and entertaining beyond words to see them both in rampant pursuit of heaven-knows-what as they race frenetically up hill and down, plowing through the snowpack off-trail, ears flapping in concert with their leaping ecstasy at the wonders of the world they inhabit.