It would never have occurred to us when we set off early this morning to do our grocery shopping that something dreadful could happen. The worst we encountered was that my husband forgot to take his wallet with. Fortunately he had stuffed enough cash into his back pocket out of habit, to pay for the groceries we bought, though he was concerned he might not have enough with him. We still filled up a bag with non-perishable food items for the Food Bank. And at the cash, discovered we had more than enough with us; it turned out to be a smaller-than-usual shopping, which I had anticipated even before we left the house, after a mental inventory of our pantry stock.

I cannot even imagine what it must be like for people living in Colorado where a gunman yesterday went hunting for Jews to slaughter. He had entered a kosher supermarket, one that advertises itself as such; otherwise an ordinary supermarket. But one that obviously attracts Jews. So his prey was clearly visible and the man, whom his family claims to be mentally unstable -- as so frequently crops up when Islamists go Jew-hunting -- succeeded in killing ten innocent people. His family, quick to excuse him on the basis of mental disturbance, obviously had no interest in knowing that he also collected weapons.

This was not, otherwise, a dark and dismal day for us as it most surely is for the bereaved families, for those who were injured in the atrocity, and those who escaped injury but whose life will have been forever changed resulting from the trauma they experienced knowing that as Jews they represent in the minds of fundamentally-hate-transfixed Islamists fair game for involuntary martyrdom.

Today, here in Ottawa, we had a balmy spring day to celebrate, with soaring temperatures, light breezes and sun's benevolent appearance, whenever it decided to part a light cloud cover. In short, setting aside horrible news from abroad, here we had the comfort, during this time of a global epidemic of a killer-virus, the relief and comfort of spring settling in and banishing reluctant winter's cantankerous decision to remain.

There are now widening areas of the ravine's forested slopes that have managed to shed their snow. We can see the start of catkins growing on the stems of hazelnut shrubs in the forest understory. We see the bright red of red osier dogwood stems standing out against the melting snow. There is still translucent-pale foliage hanging onto immature beech and ironwood trees.

In some flat areas of the forest the melting snow has formed great ponds of meltwater and there is an appearance of a swamp or wetland, the ground too saturated to absorb it all, and because it's flat it mostly retains the meltwater which doesn't run downhill into the creek, now raging with runoff from the surrounding hills of the ravine.

Jackie and Jillie are wonderful companions. They're even more intensely interested in their surroundings than we are understandably, being 'closer to nature', though we try to be observant, not to miss too much of the seasonal transition and its countless little scenarios of change. We just approach the process differently. They mostly with their ultra-sensitive noses, we with our exploring eyes.