The group mailbox for the street sits beside the entrance to the ravine. The platform for the group mailbox is always cleared of snow by a contractor after a storm. As is the street itself, by the municipality. Over time, the path leading to the ravine becomes a little trickier to access as the snowpile begins to form a barrier of some height. Nothing deters people from gradually forming a break in the growing berm by trampling the snow, but it too reflects the amount of snow that has collected, and as it becomes larger it also becomes more difficult to surmount it.

I'm fairly short; age has diminished my former 5' height slightly. It's a sharp bump I've got to negotiate to access the path, not a gradual little 'hill' and I've managed up to the present. By carefully positioning my cleat-strapped boots and heaving myself to a balance on right foot, swinging over the left foot to gain the top and clearing the obstacle. But we found, this afternoon, not unexpectedly, that the barrier overnight also had become firmly icy.

It's that kind of weather day. Yesterday the wind howled mercilessly through the atmosphere. There was freezing rain for a typical winter sleetstorm, and there was also alternate tiny balls of ice slung through the atmosphere. Unhatted, out in the backyard with Jackie and Jillie, I could feel each of those little ice balls hitting my hair, slipping with effortless force through my hair onto my scalp. The ice built up a pebbly surface on our pathways; icy but not slippery.

Today, the street outside the  house and our driveway are completely ice-covered. The ice covering layers of snow and ice almost semi-permanent during the winter months. The driveway wasn't too slippery, but the road certainly was. Still, we were all wearing boots and we had our cleats strapped over our boots. 

It was -9C, overcast, with occasional brief sunny intervals while we were out, and the wind lashed our faces as we strode up the street toward the ravine. When we reached the berm, Jackie and Jillie had no problem dashing through the steep dip, but it was covered in ice thickly solid, a layer of glare ice. Irving made it neatly over and turned to haul me through, stabilizing me with his firm grip. Once we were into the forest, the trails, though steeped in that granular ice, lacked the firm solidity of the area outside the forest.

 There, our cleats had no trouble biting into the pebbly ice surface and our descent into the ravine was accomplished with little effort. Off leash once we enter the ravine, Jackie and Jillie were ecstatic to be out and freely roaming about with us. The effect of the wind was instantly reduced, and the environment was serenely restful. Cold, but tolerable.

Occasionally, the sun decided to briefly interrupt the cloud cover to shimmer through the forest canopy but without the intention to remain for very long. It had dominated the sky earlier in the day, and now had receded. When it did emerge, trees that retained a covering of ice gleamed and glittered in the rays of the sun.

The trails that have for the past week been pitted with frozen boot prints, little depressions and irritating bumps, have now been completely smoothed over. The freezing rain of yesterday and following ice pellets had filled everything in perfectly, producing a completely smoothed-over surface. But it came with a cost to the forest. Here and there, the trails were littered with cast-off groups of pine needles, twigs and branches that had been released from the trees.

Reflecting the stress the forest experienced, first harbouring a heavy layer of ice over the snow already in place from the last storm last week, and then tormented by the blustering wind that accompanied yesterday's ice-event. It was all quite wonderful for Jackie and Jillie; right before them an unusual choice selection of eminently chewable twigs and evidently tasty pieces of bark and they made the most of it. As though the cookies that Irving doles out for them aren't enough to satisfy.

Following which, when we returned home, they clamoured for their usual little afternoon snack of chopped up fresh vegetables. And then I turned my attention to chopping up more vegetables; snow peas, red bell pepper, mushrooms and broccoli in anticipation of a dinner stir-fry for tonight. Before we had left for our  hike, I had sliced up beef into small pieces and made a marinade of garlic, wine vinegar, soya sauce and olive oil for it to steep in, in the refrigerator. And then I opened a new bag of Kokuho Rose rice to steam along with the vegetables.