There's just no point in arguing with Mother Nature. After all, the weather is hers and hers alone to decide. So who are we to complain. After all we can't have spring until winter and all its symbols and conditions are dispensed with. As long as there's snow and ice binding the earth to its sleep-mode no new growth and slumber-awakened vegetation can emerge until the ground thaws.

So rain it is, for today. Constant, unrelenting, heavy and windy. Conditions that make it unattractive to contemplate even a run through the forest trails in the ravine. And since running isn't our style in any event, this has been a strictly indoor day.

Not that there isn't more than enough to busy ourselves with indoors. From the usual household tasks to others that a few hours of time on the rare occasion calls for. And more time devoted to leisure activities, like reading, an activity that is so all-consuming to us. And looking through the Internet to see what's happening and there is quite a lot happening, most of it focusing on a narrow subject that is widely being experienced, everywhere.

Also the opportunity to prepare meals that are a little more complicated and time-consuming because there's ample time to do so, and not only is it interesting but also critically important, since attractive and nutritious meals are so vital in maintaining good health; more important now than at any other time, given the circumstances of a predatory virus seeking out health-impaired hosts.

Last night, we were privileged by the visit of two raccoons. The slightly smaller of the two had been feasting on the offerings on the porch, well illuminated by bright porch lights. We watched awhile because it's pretty fascinating witnessing the nimbleness of a raccoon's hands in action, as self-assured and delicately efficient as any human being's.

And then another raccoon ambled along, larger than the first, up the pathway and over to the porch. No hostility was evident as might occur with strangers competing with one another for scarce food, given the season. It seemed obvious the two were well acquainted and we guessed mother and juvenile offspring. The juvenile kept eating, the mother looked about a bit, paying no attention to the food which led my husband to speculate that she had been at the side door where a similar offering was available; validated later by the diminished pile we observed.

As for Jackie and Jillie, they've been entertaining themselves by being stationed in a relaxed tandem at the front door, peering out at the parade of squirrels visiting. The presence of red squirrels elicits no evident response other than their eyes following movements, but the arrival of a grey squirrel or one particular small, rotund little black squirrel is certain to see Jackie reacting with indignation that HIS porch is being used as a fast-food stop without his permission. Jillie is more laid back, for her it's a mere matter of light curiosity.