At about this point in the winter season we begin to feel a trifle restless. As though winter is a guest that has stayed a bit too long. It's not that we don't appreciate and enjoy winter, we do. It comes along and we go out of our way -- out of our nice warm homes, actually -- to accommodate ourselves to its chill presence. Oh yes, it's a visually beautiful presence, to be sure.

We're not bored with winter, definitely not. We do, however, from time to time, get a little tired of it. We hardly expected snow again today, but there it is, snow. Yesterday we had bright sunshine and an afternoon high of 2 degrees, which made for a long and delightful stroll through the winter woods. Typically, a wide open blue sky and incandescent sun translates as a very.cold.day, when temperatures plunge.

Snow began early morning today, falling at times in great clumps, lovely to behold. And the temperature was as it usually is, during a snowfall, moderate. Then the wind came up, a belligerent wind that whipped the snow about mercilessly, even off rooftops, creating those white semi-opaque skeins of snow that appear like ghostly ectoplasmic apparitions, and then quickly dissipate into the atmosphere. And the temperature began to plunge.

By the time we prepared ourselves for an afternoon hike through the ravine, it was -10C, and the wind was wicked, so we dressed for the occasion, and we were well muffled, all of us. Jackie and Jillie didn't seem to mind. Walking through the unplowed snow up the road to the ravine was not very pleasurable. And the banks of snow that have built up at the side of the road means that access to the first of the trails descending into the ravine requires a clamber, one that Jillie is suspicious of.

Once into the ravine and on the trails, it  helps to take our time rather than forge quickly ahead, though Jackie seems to have convinced himself that as long as he pulls, the laggard behind him holding the leash will make more of an effort to maintain a decent speed. It's like a juggling challenge; the cold makes my nose run and I've got to delve into my pockets to retrieve tissues.

I'm conscious of some really luscious and fleeting landscapes I'd like to capture in a photograph and then I've got to dig out my camera, all the while trying to reason with Jackie that I'm right behind  him, and I'm hustling to the best of my age-constrained and garment-restraining capacity. Jillie, for her part, sensibly trots nicely ahead of my husband holding her leash, seeing no need to pull.

And as she's directly behind me, keeping pace with my feeble efforts at speedy mobility, she indulges in her favourite hiking antics of swiping the back of my leg at the calf, metronomically. Gently, fondly, not the least bit irritating, as though, sweet thing that she is, she is encouraging me, sympathizing with me having to cope indulgently with her demanding little brother.

There were others out on some of the trails besides ourselves, and our two little dogs met for the first time a miniature chocolate-coloured Poodle mix, with an adorable multi-coloured face and warm disposition. Heaven only knows what this well-behaved dog thought of our two bumptious little imps, but her human kind of rolled her eyes when I commented on her little dog's outstandingly good demeanour. Guess my standards are fairly low, given the propensities Jackie and Jillie have toward mischief and lack of discipline.

Which, of course, anyone who prides themselves on teaching their household companions who is the alpha in the family would shake their heads at in mild derision wagging the finger of admonishment at our departure from the social contract between humans and dogs at our abandonment of responsibility to become disciplinarians to our two -- for their own good, of course, along with ours.

Sigh. I, for one, felt exhausted by the time we returned home, slogging through the fresh snow piled atop the two previous snowfalls we've enjoyed this past week. And I took comfort glancing longingly at the several packages of flower seeds my ambition for this spring's planting season comforts me with.