These days when neighbours speak together the first thing that comes to their minds is to question whether anyone has yet had their COVID vaccines. Most of our neighbours -- at least the original ones -- are retired and in the age demographic that the province has finally assured that should they register expeditiously they'll have their inoculation administered in a matter of days.

Ottawa is now registering case numbers in the low hundreds, but they're steadily creeping up and have been for several weeks, mostly driven by the new variants, and of those for the most part, the one that emerged in Great Britain, though wastewater treatment analysis has revealed the presence of the more grave and infectious South African and Brazilian variants as well. 

And with this third wave it appears to be a younger age demographic that has increasingly called on the health services of our local hospitals. A rather grim occurrence is known where nine patients at the Civic Hospital, there for treatment unrelated to COVID, contracted the virus while in hospital and died there of the effects of COVID. 

Moreover, the Ottawa Heart Institute has reported that admitted patients and associated health care workers, all of whom had received at least the initial dose of vaccine, have contracted COVID-19. Area schools have seen swiftly rising cases of COVID among students and staff in a worrying trend. And with the approach of the Easter weekend, health authorities keep reminding the public of the dire need to continue observing social distancing, masking and non-attendance at group events.

Ottawa was moved from the orange zone to the red a mere two weeks earlier. Now the provincial government and its health authority advisers are prepared to move it further into restrictive territory, in the grey zone, while appealing to people to avoid situations where transmission of the virus is likely to add to the numbers already identified with COVID, kick-starting another emergency situation in hospitals hard-put to serve their community function as it is.

The human mind needs relief from the constant references to the coronavirus threatening the world. We take ours when we venture out into our nearby forested ravine with Jackie and Jillie, our two little poodles, for a needed distraction; exercise, exposure to nature, fresh air and the sheer enjoyment of being out-of-doors taking note of seasonal changes in the forest.

As we entered the initial precinct of the ravine we saw the first woolly bear caterpillar of the season. It's an early season for the little creatures; here it is the first of April and their usual emergence date is around June. This little fellow chose a blustery, cold day to search for a suitable place to build a cocoon so he could turn into a tiger moth.

Yesterday's rain helped more snow and ice to vacate the forest trails. Given yesterday's weather forecast, we were expecting snow overnight, but it was either delayed or cancelled by the big fella up there. We're at the point where some areas that we know well from past experience will continue to cling to thick layers of ice while the remainder of the trails will be long free of snow and ice, convincing us to go elsewhere rather than risk uncomfortable falls. 

It was cold out there, with the high for the day at 0C, and a cold-piercing wind. It was back to winter jackets for all of us. We'd like to shed our cleats but whatever ice is left on the trails, particularly ascents and descents, persuades us otherwise. Booted and with cleats, for the most part we trod about in areas of trail deep in mud. These are conditions -- the cold and the wind, and the muddy spring-thawing ground alternating with areas of slippery ice -- that convinces most people to stay off the forest trails and out of the ravine.

Which is a gift to us, since it means we'll enjoy a quiet, peaceful trek through the woods. And since we've been informed by people who often report seeing and hearing coyotes that they appear to have decamped because no one, even those living alongside the ravine who often see and hear them during the nighttime hours no longer do, that we'd leave Jackie and Jillie off-leash today. It hardly seems they know the difference. They range further of course and we keep admonishing them to stay close by, but they seem unaware that they're no longer tethered to us.