Today is a winning candidate for weather perfection. And how fitting that it just also happens to be Victoria Day in the Commonwealth! Giving everyone a chance to momentarily set aside their concerns over the global pandemic and relish the convergence of spring and a national holiday. In other years both together would be celebrated as a break in the work week. In today's uniquely awful circumstance of the SARS-CoV-2 worldwide outbreak with lockdowns and mass unemployment and the fortunate working from home, it's a welcome distraction.

Nature was happy to cooperate, and anyone adjacent any kind of bucolic setting who set out to admire the natural landscape wouldn't, couldn't have been disappointed. For us, our serendipitous proximity to a forest preserve makes every day a holiday. Given today's deep dive into late spring verging on summer weather, our ambling about on the forest trails in the ravine this afternoon was an exercise in relaxation and appreciation of nature.

The Janus faces of nature. On the one hand, she is responsible for the dire threats that face humankind emanating from the natural world. Hers are the earthquakes, the volcanic eruptions, the monsoons, the landslides, the wildfires, lightning strikes, tsunamis, and floods and all other such natural phenomena. Even those humankind has a hand in provoking. As well, the novel coronavirus threatening the frail and elderly and other vulnerables among us reflect her work.

But what we see, smell and hear as we wander through the forest, is the songs of birds, the scolding of squirrels, the sudden pop-up of new vegetation in their spring presentation, the fragrance of flowers as we see bees and butterflies emerging from their winter hiatus to begin life anew. We see landscapes of trees leafing out, the forest floor beginning to assume its home for bracken, nests of snakes looking for the sun's warmth, and people wandering about an unfamiliar but discoverable part of their heritage.

In the forest, more of the Serviceberry trees are opening their blossoms for their brief moment of glory in the sun. Trout lilies have outdone themselves this year. We have never, in previous years, seen such a display of those bright little yellow flowers. On the forest floor, along with all manner of ferns erupting, wild strawberries and bedding grasses are beginning to appear. When the bedding grasses become full and numerous enough they will blossom, fragrance filling the air with their divine scent.

More clusters of woodland violets are beginning to bloom. We clambered up one of the hillsides halfway through our hike through the trails, to where we know there are a few clusters of white trilliums growing year after year, and though they're not yet fully in bloom, the shape of the flowers is clearly evident on their way to opening.

We also noticed that the fragile, tender little floral spikes of lilies of the valley are finally evincing themselves at the beginning of their bloom. Before long those tiny white bells will be fully in evidence; among the most delicate of the spring wildflowers, with their distinctive, dark green glossy foliage that love to cluster around tree trunks in the forest.

When we arrived back home afterward, we could appreciate the haste with which the giant blossoms on the larger of our two magnolia trees have been opening their luscious buds. The wind on this extremely warm and sunny day where the thermometer reads 24C and we're not about to argue with it, sending the topmost branches swaying, with their brilliantly colourful cargo.