Hmm, we neither of us this morning felt much like having too elaborate a breakfast. Not after last evening's dinner. Out of the oven came the meat pie, rested a few minutes, apportioned and plated. And the rest was pig-out history. Even Jackie and Jillie appreciated some of the pie filling...the meat portion of course. The pie got et. All of it.

 

So morning fruit-- melon and banana -- went down just fine. Orange juice, coffee and tea, and a few slices of toast. Thank you very much. Penance for overindulgence. But while we were 'indulging' it was very pleasant. What? No restraint! Well, there were a few scraps of piecrust left over. And a few of the green beans didn't make it to our mouths, but otherwise, yes, no restraint.

 

No punishment, either. This has been a glorious late-winter day. Once again the temperature struggled up to an afternoon high of 3C. Even the wind, cruel at -20C, was just on the cusp of balmy. And for most of the day there was ample sunshine. When Irving took Jackie and Jillie out to the backyard before breakfast, the male cardinal was right plunk in the middle of a tall upright juniper. Just a matter of a few metres from where Irving was standing on the walkway.

 

We've got quite an accumulation of snow in the backyard, but both of us can conjure up memory of some winters when we've had a much fuller snowpack than this. Once it begins to go, it'll clear out fairly quickly. The forest? That's another story. It'll go, agonizingly slow, or surprisingly quickly. Oh yes, and Monday we're expecting a snowstorm. That's what it's like at this time of year, one step forward, two steps back.

 

I'm already visualizing the thawing soil knocking on the awareness of waiting bulbs and perennials. Hey, you there, time to get ready to pop out as soon as your host-soil has warmed enough. And then, imperceptibly, but inexorably, those tiny green shoots will emerge, glance about to feel the warmth of the sun encouraging further emergence, and before we know it the exquisite form and colour of spring flowers will begin preening in our gardens.

 

These beautiful days are bringing hordes of people out of the greater community and into the forest to enjoy both the warmer weather and the continued sight of our snowy landscape in the ravine and forest that winds its way through the geology of this area. We are fortunate. We can go long stretches of trails without seeing anyone, then suddenly there they are, people we haven't seen in a while, and others we see fairly frequently; among them those who have never ventured forth before.

 

 

So an hour's hike through the woods can end up being a two-hour stop-and-start stroll through the forest. Many people commit to a relatively short circuit where they avoid descending into the ravine which necessitates at some point ascending other hills as the trails meander here and there, connecting and departing from main trails.

 

 

The most common topic that comes to people's minds now is the conflict forced upon Ukraine by Russia. But one old friend we haven't seen in months who lives at the foot of our street and whose house backs onto the ravine, informed us that for the first time ever, she now regularly sees coyotes out back, including in her backyard. When she was out yesterday, at 6:00 p.m., she told us, there was a large coyote she took to be a male and with him two much smaller pups, on the trail close to where we stood talking with her. 

Wildlife reclaiming their historical territory.