In other parts of the world the entry of March signifies spring is on its way. Here in the frozen north, March is an uncertain month. We wait on tenterhooks to see  how it will enter; as a lamb or a lion...?

This year it roared, though we preferred to have it bleat. We got up at the ungodly hour of 7:30 to get the food shopping done and over early. Jackie knows. Instead of pulling a dressing gown over my nightwear, I immediately get fully dressed. Jillie likely knows too, but it's Jackie who suffers more from separation anxiety.

It was cold, at -16C, windy and snowing. When we brought Jackie and Jillie back into the house from the backyard, they'd had to wade through a few inches of new snow that had already fallen, so they were well covered with snow. They love a good rub-down and they got a vigorous towelling. Which always excites them to have us play with them.

After which Jackie went right back upstairs and got back in bed. Which he never does otherwise. Jillie, sensibly stayed downstairs and nibbled at some morning cheese treats. When we began putting on our coats and boots that's when Jackie came back down and began howling. 'You're leaving us! How COULD you!?

The drive to the supermarket was a bit of a challenge. We were essentially driving into a rolling white-out. The road was greasy and slippery, and truck drivers on the main streets were driving too fast for the prevailing conditions. There were some gaps of empty shelving in the store, but not many. Everything we're interested in was in good supply. On the way back home another stop at the pharmacy to pick up prescription renewals.Visibility continued to be poor, and driving required extra vigilance.

Snow, an interview with a weatherman, informed us via the radio, was nowhere near finished for our region this winter. March and April, he said helpfully, provides us with a good 25% of the snow that usually falls in any of our winter seasons. April. The month we think of as finally welcoming spring. But that's the Ottawa Valley.

After breakfast I brought the pea beans I had soaked overnight to a boil and cooked them for about an hour. While that was cooking I made up another batch of rolled sugar cookies. They're the only kind of cookies that I can be sure Irving will eat. Any other type of cookie gets a try-out and a few are eaten initially, then they grow stale and ignored. Then I added onion, garlic, tomato, molasses, pepper, dry mustard, a chicken bouillon cube to the peas to percolate gently.

And then it was time to get ourselves out to the ravine. The puppies may not be particularly enamoured of being out in the backyard during a snowstorm but they welcome it when we're tramping our way through the forest trails. The strength of the snow had subsided considerably, and the wind had withdrawn as well. Even the temperature had moderated nicely to -10C, making our foray very comfortable.

 

Enough people from the wider community had been out earlier on the trails to tamp them down making progress that much easier along the trails. Which doesn't help all that much when you're headed uphill on a long and sometimes steep hill. But the scenery makes up for any physical effort expended in the process. And Jackie and Jillie get the opportunity to see some of their friends out and about and to enjoy a bit of sporadic highjinks.

 

 

Yesterday's dinner of chicken breasts braised in tomatoes, bell pepper, garlic, jalapeno pepper, onion and olive oil was just the thing for a cold winter day. There will be echoes of that meal in a sense, in the stove-top 'baked beans' we're having tonight, because I had decided to chop fresh tomatoes into the liquid of the beans to cook away into a tomato sauce.