First thing on our minds this morning, given the -16C temperature and a cutting wind was whether we'd opt to get out with Jackie and Jillie later in the day for a ravine hike through the forest. They're not thinking about a walk after breakfast, just relaxing and letting it all sink in, just like us. But soon enough we got going and left them to their rest.

Irving heading downstairs to his workshop to continue working on his glass insert for the new door he made to go upstairs in one of the bedrooms at the front of the house, and me into the kitchen to do some baking. The window is coming along nicely. It's slow and tedious work, but he really applies himself, bit by bit, day by day. And it's beginning to take shape. A roundel with a brown bear fishing in a forest stream.

As for me, I prepared a whole-wheat bread dough, shredded lots of old cheddar into it, laced it with both cumin and sesame seeds for something flavourful. And I decided to go ahead with Irving's suggestion. It isn't often we have a pile of bananas with two of them really, really ripe, and he loves banana baked into goodies. He'd really like a banana cream pie, but aside from the fact they're so fussy to make, whatever is left over after we've each had a slice has to be refrigerated, and there's just no room in the refrigerator (thank heavens).

So his second choice it would be, a banana cake. But a small one, since how much cake after all, can two people eat? I have a very old, fairly small fluted cake pan and it's used for such occasions, which isn't all that often. I asked if he thought coconut in with the bananas would suit him and since he also loves coconut, he thought it would be a good combination. And that's what I ended up baking, a banana-coconut cake. And I thought that a cream-cheese frosting would go very well with the cake. It looks like an erupted volcano, actually, but the fragrance of it floating through the house was very nice.

By afternoon Jackie and Jillie came along to tell me that it was time we made up our minds about going out. They escorted me downstairs after I'd changed from 'work' clothes to 'relaxation' dress, and there was Irving, preparing their jackets, harnesses, collars and leashes. So that was that. The thermometer read -16C, and we knew from being outside with them in the backyard now and again that it was icy, both temperature-wise and underfoot, and the wind was relentless. It had swept all the snow that had gathered in the past few days off the canopy over the deck.

As we walked up the street toward the ravine entrance, the canopy of the sky itself was clear of snow and cloud cover, as broadly blue as an ocean, the sun's rays detectably warm on our faces until we turned in the direction of the forest and the wind whipped directly at us. But the moon was out, challenging the sun, a wan silver disk competing with a warm golden orb.

We  hoped that it would take a while before the icy cold penetrated the boots Jackie and Jillie were wearing. And in fact they were pretty lively, zipping about everywhere. They lose no time flapping their ears for elevation in time with their flashing legs to gain distance between themselves and  us, ambling downhill after them.

Unsurprisingly, there was no one else around on the trails, other than a couple in the far distance on another trail that we could look down on once we gained the spine of the ravine. Jackie and Jillie too know that high ground gives them the advantage of looking down on trails on either side, far distant, but not that far that they can't sight other dogs racing about along with their humans.

This was not a day meant for taking our time along the forest trails. Even though the forest environs mitigated the effect of the wind, the cold temperature soon froze our faces. So we went along as briskly as possible, energy expended equating with keeping our body core temperature at a comfortable level. Jackie held out for a long time, but eventually as we neared the last bridge to cross over the creek he asked to be picked up. Jillie managed until we actually got back into our driveway before she began lifting her frozen little paws.

But it's just as well we got out with our two little squirts, since a weather warning is out, not just for today, but tomorrow and the following several days of even colder temperatures and a real winter storm heading our way to heap new snow down on us -- between 20 to 30 cm of snow, on Monday, And if it happens, it'll be the first such snowstorm of this new year, the winter of 2022.