In Vancouver, our son's backyard flowering quince is a tree, and in full spring flower, it is utterly magnificent. Here in Ottawa, our two Japanese quince are shrubs and though their flowers are exquisitely lovely they don't make anywhere near the show the tree-size quince presents. In a week his tree will be embroidered with those beautiful flowers. It will take at least another month for ours to begin flowering; so much for growing zones.

Yesterday I asked Irving what he would prefer for dinner, a fish chowder or fish'n (oven-baked) chips, and he chose chowder. It does make a comforting and good-tasting meal. Irrespective of his choice a vegetable salad accompanies one and the other. I used sole, my preference fish for chowder, although haddock does very well too. This time I thought I'd add chopped red pepper and green peas for colour and added taste, and it worked very well, with the chopped onion, garlic, celery and potatoes.

Today turned out yet another heavily overcast day, and damp, but the temperature edged up nicely to 8C by afternoon, so no complaints. Once again, I asked Irving what he'd like for a baked dessert and as usual he looked right back at me and said 'what're you thinking of baking?' I was thinking of chocolate-mocha cupcakes, so that's what I ended up baking. Large cupcakes. I have a six-cup and a number of 12-baking pans, but usually use the six-cup, so we end with a half-dozen. During the course of the following days it's a challenge for us to eat them all, and we usually don't.

But I love baking, and I always like to have something new and different, and so it goes. 

By afternoon it was raining again, but lightly. So we set off for our ravine hike in raingear, hoping that we wouldn't encounter any serious rain, and we didn't. Just as we were rounding back on our circuit, rain began falling again, more of a light drizzle, so none of us got wet. It would be Jackie and Jillie that would, since our rainjackets come with hoods and they're annoyed with hoods hanging over their heads.

The snowmelt is ongoing, and it will be for at least another month. What happens when the snowpack melts is that it reveals layers of ice beneath. And where snow and ice are compressed by continual traffic, the trails become slick with ice. And today they were that, in spades, despite the milder temperature. Ascents and descents become tricky, but we're fairly careful and moderately sure-footed with the cleats. Without them it would be asking for trouble.

These are the prevailing conditions that convince many people to stay out of the ravine until the snow is completely gone and the trails have dried. But such conditions don't faze regular  trail hikers who have over the years, like us, become accustomed to these transitory seasonal conditions and have a better idea of how to handle them. Jackie and Jillie saw no other dogs out and about and as a result, we were spared their frantic barking fits.

Which meant that they enjoyed their leisurely  hike through the woods, and so did we. Back at home, as soon as we wash their little paws and get ourselves in order, they wait expectantly by the kitchen sink for me to cut up vegetables for their mid-afternoon snack. Which consists of chopped bell pepper, cucumber, snap beans and tomatoes. And then they collapse into a peaceful nap on the sofa; dreaming no doubt, about dinner yet to come...