That's two days in the space of a week we weren't able to get out with Jackie and Jillie for their usual tramp through the forest. Another all-day rain event yesterday kept us all at home. We didn't really mind, and nor, we thought, did our little dogs. They amused themselves and amused us in the bargain. Though t's entirely possible we failed to amuse them. 

They get quite excited when they know it's time for something agreeable to happen. As when, for example, I'm preparing their dinner. That's the signal for them to celebrate by whipping about the house after one another, Jackie very vocal about it with little yips and grunts, Jillie skilled in evading him, both performing amazing little pirouettes and spirited evasions whenever they get too close to one another.

And when they anticipate that it's time we begin preparing to take them out for an afternoon hike, they go a little berserk.  Usually upstairs in our bedroom when I'm changing and they leap about from bed to loveseat, challenging one another, coming to screeching halts, sliding on small area rugs and generally creating a bit of havoc. Yesterday all this commotion was to no avail. We listened to them, but the weather failed to. They definitely do not like to be out in rain.

Today, a different story. The morning didn't start out too well for them. They knew, from how Irving and I dressed first off that this would be a different day, the kind of day they don't the least bit care for. They came downstairs with us to go out to the backyard, insisted on being rubbed and played with, then took themselves back upstairs and the house was very, very still. When we put on our coats and our shoes to exit the house to go and do the grocery shopping, the wails commenced ... abandoned ... again!

But the celebration when we returned! You'd think they had been deprived of our company for months on end and had just been reconciled, the greeting yips and cries of happiness, the leaping and the pulling, the licking and the neediness of two little dogs expressing their joy at being reunited. This time, after breakfast and clean-up, though it looked like threatening rain, off we went for our hike.

A cool and windy day and completely overcast. But how good to be out after so long an interval without a walk in the woods -- how long? -- no doubt a day can seem like an eternity to two little dogs. And the bonus was that we had the trails to ourselves, how very nice. Just as well we all dressed for the cool and the wind, since in the ravine it always tends to be colder than at street level, even with protection from the wind by the forest acting as a screen.

The forest floor still looks bleak and empty in most places. And because of the copious rain we've received this week, the trails are muddy in some places and rain puddles abound in some areas as well. We noted that my very most unfavourite of all vegetation that erupts out of the leaf mass, horsetails, are now making their presence. They're a primitive plant that was once prized by medieval scribes for their abrasive quality, used to 'erase' script errors on parchment manuscripts.

 But if you know where to look, while the forest leaf canopy is just beginning to come to life, there is colour and shape and beauty to be seen here and there. The first of the spring wildflowers emerging and showing off in a season of new growth. The coltsfoot is now going to seed, but the violets are beginning to bloom, as are the trilliums and the trout lilies.