After yesterday's ravine hike when we were out in quite cold conditions, given the high for the day remained stuck at -12C, exacerbated mightily by a piercing wind, the discomfort I felt with those icy probes under my jacket wasn't to be repeated. I would break out my second winter jacket, down-filled like the one I wore yesterday, but, I thought, warmer. 

So out it came, on it went and I felt assured before heading out with an equally well-dressed Jackie and Jillie and my husband with his jacket that never fails to do its job, that I wouldn't be shivering today. When the temperature was even lower, at -14C. And whereas yesterday was a sunny day, today was destined to see no sun at all.

Amazingly, we're still absent a snowpack. At these temperatures garden plants depend on the insulating qualities of a snowpack to protect sleeping vegetation from the icy excesses of days like these. Which will most certainly become even colder with the approaching month and the month following, when it isn't unusual for us to have day-time highs of -20C now and again. There's often frost-bitten (winter-kill) victims after a long, cold winter, and we gardeners depend on a normal winter's covering of snow to protect vulnerable plants.

Quite aside from the fact that a  Christmas holiday season without a good snow covering on the landscape is not only unusual but disappointing. We might as well be living Down Under where the holidays are celebrated during a season opposite our own. Even in Israel, where at this time of year winter makes its mark, Hannukah is not necessarily festooned with snow covering the ground, a holiday commemorating an ancient miracle of the reconsecrated Temple during the Seleucid Greek era seeing a scant amount of oil burning for an unheard-of eight days.

In the 2nd Century BCE the Maccabees, a small group of armed resistors rebelled, wresting the Temple of Solomon from the assault by the Seleucids which had erected an alter to Zeus, and desecrated the Temple with the presence of forbidden pigs. In re-dedicating the Temple to the worship of the monotheistic Yahweh, lighting a menorah with a tiny amount of oil expected to last no longer than a day, but the oil continued to burn, constituting a miraculous message of light and delivery from persecution.

Both the Christian and the Jewish festivals are held in the month of December, though a moving calendar in the Jewish faith sometimes brings them closer, sometimes further than the Christian one. For Jews, their celebration began a week ago, and ends tomorrow. Christians have yet a week to go before theirs occurs and in the lead-up to that single day which also celebrates the day before and the day after, the emphasis has traditionally been on gift-giving, somewhat subdued this year of COVID-19.

It's likely a feature of advanced age that we once would embark on hours-long snowshoeing ventures at -20C, and barely feel the cold, whereas now we're acutely aware of the discomfort of probing fingers of ice infiltrating our defences against the seasonal cold. We felt that cold today, though we kept a decent pace hiking through the trails. Despite which I realized that this second jacket was no more a guarantor of comfort against the cold than the other had been. 

Deciding we would today be satisfied with a diminished hike, taking a shorter circuit we were out less than an hour in comparison to our usual hour-and-a-half. It was soon enough evident to us  that the extreme cold had kept many people away from an assignation with nature. What also became evident was that my Nikkon CoolPix digital camera was anything but cool about the temperature, which had the effect of producing fuzzy photographs in an obvious act of rebellion against the cold. Somewhat akin to the Maccabees rebelling against religious oppression.

And when we returned home to a welcoming, warm house, Jackie and Jillie were restless until they had their cauliflower treat so they could finally retreat to a comfortable afternoon snooze. I busied myself in the kitchen, chopping up garlic, onion, slicing mushrooms and carrots to pair with the stewing beef I had earlier cubed and marinated in white wine vinegar, olive oil, sumac, garlic and paprika on my way to preparing a warming stew for dinner tonight. 

Along with green beans and rice cooked separately. And a dessert that will in a sense resemble the beef stew that will precede it. Apple compote, fragrant with cloves and cinnamon, to be served warm.