We've fallen into a peculiar weather pattern of late, with below-freezing night-time temperatures, morning sun, then the day divides itself into alternations of snow flurries and sunshine. The sun isn't hard to take, the brisk wind and the cold we could do without, but no one's listening. I'm sure if we had warming weather as one might expect for April we'd be a lot further ahead in seeing vegetation erupt from the soil.

Just as well we have plenty to do to keep occupied in our locked-down-at-home situation. This morning my husband snuck downstairs to the kitchen while I was still in bed, hauled out his trusty old breadmaker, and put on a bread to rise and bake. And just incidentally make the house deliciously fragrant. I've never used a mechanical breadmaker and never will, but I'm happy my husband is devoted to his.

For my part, after breakfast I did some bread-dough-making myself. One, a plain bread dough that I placed in the refrigerator to keep for another day to use for pizza or anything else that appeals. The other a sweet-bread dough made with milk, butter, honey and eggs in with the yeast, salt and flour. And that was for a pan of Chelsea buns that my husband so craves, and I usually make during the winter months. I just realized this morning though, that while I've been doing plenty of baking, I have overlooked Chelsea buns.

Eventually, we convinced Jackie and Jillie -- or it could have been the other way around - that since we'd reached a point in the afternoon where it looked as though the snow flurries had finished and the sun out sailing through a sky only moderately crowded with fluffy white clouds, we should get ourselves out to the ravine for a good, long hike.

In the news this morning, more stories about people fed up with staying at home -- flouting the new rules closing parks and public playgrounds to the public -- being harassed by police for walking through the parks, doing chin-ups on exercise equipment, playing catch with their high-energy children and other socially disgraceful things. And for their trouble, being written expensive tickets, and even hauled off for other punishments. And here we are, fortunate enough to walk up the street and enter a forest.

It's truly a beautiful Friday. And enough people other than ourselves thought so as well, to bring them out to the ravine. At one point we came across a real bottleneck of people standing a good distance from one another but occupying an area where trails diverge, so instead of making our way through them, we simply took another route bypassing them and went on another trajectory altogether than what we had planned.

We did speak to them briefly, however, long enough to learn that one of the dogs with the group, a small Chihuahua, had experienced a surprise, sudden encounter with an owl that had swept down from a nearby tree with the intention of grasping the little dog. We used to worry about that happening with Riley, our little Apricot toy poodle, recalling once walking under a tree where an owl was roosting, swivelling its great head in the odd way they do, to closely watch Riley as he trotted past.

It's that time of year when birds come down from the north, and owls have been nesting in the ravined forest for quite a few years now. Mostly barred owls, though we also get snowy owls, all the more so when it's been a tough winter with a heavy snowcover and the hunting hasn't been very good for the owls. Before long we'll also see the return of the sharp-shinned hawks that we've seen in years past.

On another occasion we came across a woman we haven't seen for quite a while, who often comes into the ravine with her part chocolate Lab. She keeps a muzzle on the good-natured dog, because she's tired of taking him to the veterinarian when he becomes ill as a result of eating sticks without chewing before swallowing them. As they approached from the opposite direction to us, and Jackie and Jillie were brought to attention, Jackie began walking on his hind legs as he often does when confronting people walking toward us. It's as though he wants to gain a different perspective by being taller so he can better make out who is approaching.