The reason it was so dark when we awoke this morning was soon evident as we came downstairs and glancing out the front door were rewarded with the sight of thick layers of snow occupying the atmosphere. It was also milder at -6C, than it has been these mornings. But we soon discovered that the mild temperature was a bit deceptive given a strong wind coursing through the backyard which usually with its micro-climate refuses entry to wind.

Watching t he snow suffuse the landscape, changing its character from time to time from large clusters of flakes to more modest-sized single flakes thickly flocking through the air provided a little light entertainment at breakfast time. We thought we would receive a total of about 3 cm and when the storm resolved itself we had roughly twice that, not a lot, but enough to make for an entrancing landscape.

While Irving went out to shovel after breakfast, I got busy in the kitchen with his delayed-a-day birthday cake. Once, many years ago I would occasionally bake a red devil's food cake that he particularly liked that was far from a favourite of mine. The leavening in the cake depends on baking soda and I don't favour baking soda, but on this occasion I thought it would make a perfect cake for him.

 It's an odd recipe as well as an old one. I prepared two layer pans, cutting out rounds of waxed paper for their bottoms and set to work. Dissolved two teaspoons of baking powder in a half-cup of milk, and put water on to boil, a cup-worth in which I dissolved a tablespoon of instant coffee. Mixed a cup of granulated sugar with a half-cup butter, added two large eggs, a tsp.of vanilla, and sifted two cups of cake and pastry flour with a half-cup cocoa powder. Alternating dry and liquid, I had a loose batter that went into the two pans to bake at 350F for 30 minutes.

I decided on a vanilla icing, spreading a thin layer between the two cake layers, a thicker layer on top, and then scraped milk chocolate over the icing, and the deed was done.

Some while later in the early afternoon Jackie and Jillie persuaded us it was time to go off for a hike through the ravine. The atmosphere was dim, the wind was fierce but alleviated somewhat once we were in the ravine. The new dusting of snow over the trees emphasized the winter landscape in the inimitable way that only snow can do. Jackie and Jillie found ample evidence of other dogs having gone through the trails, sniffing everywhere.

The creek has disappeared. In the sense that it can no longer be seen, and if someone had no idea there was a creek running through the bottom of the ravine, they wouldn't know it from the snowed-in aspect that now presents itself. The creek is iced over, with a layer of ice that would begin to melt at the temperature we were out in, 0C, but the newfallen snow acts as an insulator as well as a screen.

Like yesterday, a sunny, mild day, there were a lot of other people out with their dogs. It almost seems as though the grumpy people who had flocked to the ravine trails in the past months, having discovered the hiking trails were not to their liking, no longer come out. Instead, the good-natured, nature-appreciating types continue to make the ravine a daily destination, and that's a good thing. 

People seemed happy to be out, everyone smiling, their dogs romping about excitedly finding new friends to play with briefly as they crossed paths. And though there were some choke points on the trails we managed to maintain a semblance of distance and to retain our civil courtesy to one another as we shared the benefits this extraordinary urban forest offers the community.