The streets were so slushy yesterday from melting snow after the wet snowstorm we'd had the day before, and the one before that, that neighbours were out shoveling away accumulated snow to free up the sewer gratings on the road in front of their homes. It was mild out and everyone was quite cheerful. An opportunity to mosey over and have a little chat, then return to freeing up access for the melting snowpack to run off into the sewers.

When we set out in the afternoon with Jackie and Jillie the snow was soft and high on the road. No municipal plows had yet passed by. Wherever vehicles had drive up and down the street, the snow had been smashed down, and in those tracks lay muddy water, quite deep in some places. The temperature had soared to almost 4C under overcast skies, leaving a morass of melting snow mixed with sand, salt and bits of gravel on the road.

Which convinced us of the choice to carry our little toy poodles up the street to the ravine entrance rather than have them wallow in the icy muck which would almost certainly also have the effect of shortening the lives of their little rubber boots. They were wearing the second set each this winter. Once off the street and onto the pathway leading to the descent into the ravine they negotiated their own way.

The forest trails were fairly decent, narrow and sloppy-wet but nicely negotiable. We could hear the creek flushing downstream long before we reached the bottom of the hill leading to the banks of the runway. No ice left there at all. Just a rushing, splashing, whirling mass of muddy meltwater on its way to the Ottawa River.

But it wasn't raining, and it wasn't snowing. Sauntering about on forest trails in the snow is an absolute delight. Doing the same on a winter day, irrespective of how moderate the temperature is relatively speaking when it's raining, is no one's idea of a jolly old time. The wind and the mild temperature had made quick work of the newfallen snow on trees and shrubs, but the forest floor was deep with snow.

We knew this wouldn't last, since the forecast for the rest of the week is steadily falling temperatures. The uneven surfaces of the trails resulting from boots, skis, snowshoes and sleds, but mostly boots where the wet snow  yields so readily to any kind of pressure, will turn out the following day, we knew, frozen in a firm and icy, uneven composition making the trails feel even more iffy to the point where a twisted ankle becomes possible for the unwary.

If ever we're faced with the prospect of a sloppy mess on the street as opposed to one in the ravine, and the choice could be either one, we'd dismiss out of hand the alternative of taking Jackie and Jillie for a leisurely walk on sidewalks where traffic zips back and forth on the nearby roads, and incessant sound and distractions take one's attention.

Whatever the conditions, in the forest there is calm and tranquility, and beauty wherever we look. There simply is no other option...