It was still snowing heavily when we went up to bed just after midnight; the witching hour for a backyard that looked as though it had been dumped into an immense vat of vanilla ice cream. All the pathways had been newly shovelled, Irving just finishing up when I took the puppies out for the last time before bed. And it was mild, still above freezing at 2C.

 

Overnight the temperature dropped and it would keep dropping all day, bit by bit. Peering outdoors to a completely snow-frosted landscape we looked up to see a wide, clear blue sky, the sun illuminating the thick depth of snow blanketing everything. And we felt immensely cozy and comfortable in our warm house, with breakfast beckoning this morning. 

When we eventually took ourselves out to the ravine, we were breathless with wonder at the spectacle before us; every possible surface was deeply inundated with snow. Because it had been so mild yesterday when the snow was steadily falling, the quality of the snow was such that it clung tenaciously everywhere. So that by this morning when the storm eventually wore itself out, the landscape had been completely immersed.

Making our way downhill into the ravine presented no footing problem; again the snow's texture lent itself to firm footing, despite its depth. Although we saw few others out in the indescribable beauty of the forest, it was clear from the condition of the trails that many had indeed been out at some time during the day, earlier than our foray in early afternoon.

The sun blazed its bright warmth through the snow-drenched canopy, creating other dimensions of drama to an already startling landscape. Branches and boughs brought low with the weight of snow. Wind gusts urging the branches to release t \heir burdens. Long skeins of bright white flakes embroidering the air as they created wispy arabesques of bright light falling to the cushioned forest floor.

Jackie and Jillie amply demonstrated the power of their olfactory senses, noses to the snowpack, veering here and there, picking up messages and irresistible aromas we can only begin to guess the identity of and then only feebly. They prance through the thick layers of snow with a joy known only to animals that have never seen fit to alter their habitation to take them further from nature.

Their noses come up bright white from the sniffing/snuffling frenzies they engage in, their legs above their rubber boots become thick with snow, their gait is swift and their intent is obviously to see whatever may be around the next corner, or up the next hill, or down in the valley. All their senses, smell, hearing, visibility so much superior to our own. 

As for the succession of scenes in the changing landscape as we tramped through the forest trails, the presence of the snow from yesterday's storm was overwhelming in its capacity to alter a familiar place we know so thoroughly lending an air of elegance here, mystery there, curiosity here, and poignancy in flashback memories of other years, long ago when at all times of day and night the forest called out to us and each foray represented a fresh exploration of nature.