Scilla, those tiny bright blue bulbs are beginning to flower in the backyard, along with miniature Irises. And the grape hyacinths will not be far behind. I took a little time off from the kitchen this morning to continue shovelling aged compost out of one of our backyard compost bins and into a wheelbarrow to spread on the gardens. Once again, a sublimely beautiful day. And the cardinals were trilling brilliantly on the topmost branches of the red maple next backyard. I watched the female cardinal on our porch earlier, picking up some treats. Even later, a pair of glossy-black crows were doing the same thing. Mostly the squirrels monopolize the offerings, though.

Since it's Friday, it's also baking day. Which is to say, a dessert of some kind. Most days of the week we have fresh fruit for dessert. On Fridays we treat ourselves to something sweet and baked. And today I decided on a mixed-soft-berry pie. Using one of those frozen pouches containing raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and strawberries Simple enough, I cook the berries briefly in a combination of sugar, cornstarch and cranberry juice for the filling, until it's thick, then add butter and almond flavouring. Then prepare the pastry dough, and voila! ready to pop into the oven for a half-hour.

We headed out to the ravine on this most wonderfully perfect of spring days. The transition has been so swift, it's hardly believable. But it's always like that, as long as we can remember. We've another day of this blissful weather, then the 20C will become 10C, and from Sunday forward there are five days forecasted of cooler and wet weather. Spring rain comes in April, right?

This is also the first day we've set aside our winter boots and cleats. We wore our hiking boots, no cleats. Just took a different direction on the trail system, to avoid the area that retains ice for an intolerably long period. So instead of heading to the bridge on the left as usual we turned in the opposite direct, right, to access that bridge over the creek. And just as we cleared the bridge, there they were, the first pair of Mallards we've yet seen this spring.

We've been scanning the creek for the past week or so, wondering when they'd show up and of course they chose the most perfect of days. We watched them awhile before moving on. Jackie and Jillie weren't aware of their presence, though they usually react to the presence of anything that moves. The male Mallard seemed content in just remaining still, but his mate was busy dabbling below the water line, eating her fill of microscopic plankton, I guess. They'll be nesting soon.

The superb weather brought out so many of our ravine acquaintances we couldn't walk very far without coming across one, then another and another. With their companion dogs. So Jackie and Jillie had company aplenty. When we headed back to complete our circuit, we thought the ducks would long since have moved on, likely disturbed by the presence of people passing by. They had steamed ahead slightly, closer to the bridge, but remained where they were, placidly enjoying the day.

And then, when we mounted the bridge and looked over to the little pond that forms in one particular place there was a sudden flash of orange. Last year we had discovered the presence of goldfish in the creek, some of which had grown to a sizeable presence, while there were also hundreds of minuscule black ones. We assumed last spring when winter left and we could no longer see the fish that the Great Blue Heron that arrived and stayed awhile, had eaten them all. Apparently not. And we're so pleased to see them...!