Spring is anxious to let us know she's arrived. Right on schedule. To make certain we're aware, she tasked a flight of Canada geese to fly close over the house, calling down to us and we hailed them right back. In the backyard there remains ample snow left to melt. But given the temperature highs in the low double-digits these past few days, the days of high-packed snow in the backyard are numbered. The garden shed roofs have dutifully shed their impossibly lofty collection of the season's snow. I could swear I heard a sigh: 'free, free at last'!

Maybe that was me. As ridiculously precipitate as it is, when I venture out to the backyard with Jackie and Jillie I peer closely to the just-vacated areas of the garden where the snow has abandoned its hold, to see if anything is yet emerging from the soil. How likely is that, since the soil is still hard with penetrating frost? And yet, regardless, there are a few green spears poking through, so there!

Last night we had the usual winter fare for Sunday evening. Hot, flavourful soup thick with pulses, vegetables and a tomato base. And sesame-seed-infused, cheese-encrusted croissants to go with the soup. Irving smoothed some pate on his croissants, but they're so cheesy (I used marble Cheddar this time) they need nothing added for flavour, a perfect accompaniment to the soup. As the weather warms, however, the soup will have served its purpose, and I'll be moving on to other, more weather-appropriate meal offerings -- heavy on salads.

We set out in mid-afternoon for our ravine trek, wondering if, like yesterday, we'd encounter few others out, given the conditions now prevailing in the ravine. The trails ascending and descending the hills are treacherous for the uninitiated and most certainly so for any unwary enough to appear without cleats strapped over their boots. Besides which, a lot of people don't much favour the sloppy conditions of melting snow-mush revealing hard ice beneath and where everything has melted, the emergence of muddy conditions as the soil is exposed and becomes saturated.

Jackie plows through everything. Jillie delicately side-steps the flooded areas, the muddy portions and we make an effort to do the same. We came upon some chickadees and nuthatches keeping them company, but heard no crows or owls today. The creek is riding high and full, charging downstream spuming and churning up the leda clay forming its bed. Looking up through the forest canopy our eyes are soothed with the cool blue roof of the Earth, no clouds, no wind, no cares.