The forest and the ravine appeared to be the choice of destination for quite a few area families this Christmas Eve day. Talk about a recreational opportunity for young children living nearby the forest, led by their parents on a few rare days of leisure activity. We were out and about ourselves a little earlier than usual this afternoon.

Before we even made it to the long descent into the ravine we could hear from afar the lilting, excited sound of children's voices. We paused at the top of the hill to look down over the long slope and there, at the bottom of another, facing hill we could see the distant figures of colourfully-clad children sliding downhill on sleds and congregating happily at the hill's bottom. Beside them the taller figures of adults.

Jackie and Jillie added their voices enthusiastically to the tumult, observing the distant commotion. We took the opposite direction, however, when we reached the bottom of the hill, the direction we usually take. By the time we would complete a long circuit taking us eventually, to where the activity was taking place, we reasoned the group would be long gone.

And they were gone, either moved on home, or elsewhere in the ravine, sleds and toboggans with them. There exists a myriad of places where children would be able to slide merrily downhill and experience the heady excitement of swift motion over a layer of snow, the wind whipping past them. That layer of snow is not as rich as it was several days earlier, unfortunately, and with it there is now ample ice to make hiking about the trails tricky in some spots.

We'd had several days of mild weather, sufficient to melt much of the gathered snowpack. The second time we've experienced this so far in the last few months, which is pretty unusual. Although there's still some snow left, it's sparse. Certainly not what the typical winter landscape looks like here ordinarily, and that's a pity.

There were so many people out and about, from family groups of adults, adults with young children, and teen-agers, marking an unusual occasion. We knew some of those people, but for the most part many more were unknown to us. Everyone appeared happy with where they found themselves, and no doubt that happiness owed a good deal to the fact that Christmas Day was finally approaching.

Jackie and Jillie had the opportunity to meet up with some interesting dogs of all sizes and breeds. From the observations I'm making it might seem that the trails were packed with people, but nothing could be further from reality. In a half-hour stretch of hiking some trails that interconnect we saw no one out beside ourselves.

In other places, where there were others about they weren't too far from some of trail entrances. Everyone was cheerful, for if anything can be guaranteed at this time of year on the approach to Christmas and New Year's the general mood is always uplifted.

And it was, after all, a bright, sunny day, with a modest temperature of -2C, and light wind. Who wouldn't be happy in such a landscape under these conditions?