Right this very moment, late afternoon, the sun is out, brightening the interior of the house. But simultaneously it's also snowing. Light flurries, to be sure, but snowing. And sunny. So go figure. When we were out in the ravine earlier with Jackie and Jillie it was heavily overcast. We had morning rain earlier in the day because the temperature was high enough at that time.

Irving decided to go out shortly after breakfast -- after he had done some house vacuuming -- to bring home lumber he needed for a new project. So, off he went and was gone for hours. When he returned he brought with him some unexpected things. He had gone to the lumber yard but didn't find what he needed. But because he was out so long, he thought he'd better leave another yard to another day. Since he had gone to the bank as well as Lowe's he decided to drop in at a few other places.

 He gets the urge to do that occasionally, and today was one of those days. He bought himself two pair of jeans and a new pair of house slippers to replace his worn ones. He never forgets me. I had commented on how shabby an old bedspread looked on our bed. I like to have one bedspread for the winter months and another for summer. He brought back a bedspread, one I would have chosen myself; big on foliage, a white background and lots of green.

And then he was anxious to have me try on a little summer dress he chose and bought for me. It was in fact, exactly a style and colour I would have chosen myself. An Empire-waisted strappy light-fabric summer dress with a wide skirt. And it fit perfectly. He was pleased and so was I. Jackie and Jillie not so much. Dark background, sprinkled with flowers. 

I had earlier, while he was away, done my baking and some dinner preparations. We had some very large, crisp 'Prince' apples grown in Ontario and that's what I used to make an apple pie. Although I used cinnamon to flavour the pie, I also cut up crystallized ginger and added dark Thompson raisins. I had cut out little hearts on the top crust, and perhaps they had floated out on the ether despite the overcast sky, to find Irving and spur his shopping muse.

Last night we had a lovely colourful salad to preface our main course; baked salmon and oven-'fried' potato chips. We had black plums from Chile and hard little pears from Portugal, so I decided to prepare a compote and that's what we had for dessert, last evening. 

Soon after Irving returned home from his shopping trip Jackie and Jillie demanded that we get serious about the quality of the day. And we agreed. The rain had stopped, and it was time to venture out into the snow-melting woods. Emerging from the house I was taken aback at how cold the atmosphere was, the wind whip-sharp and icy. 

It was also gratifying to discover as we entered the ravine and began our descent that the quality of the ice spread over the trails had changed. Last night's rain ensured the temperature hadn't dipped below freezing. Although it was cold when we were out by afternoon, the temperature as we left the house read 4.5C; it just didn't feel that mild. Yet the slick ice of yesterday and the day before had become grainy, so that our cleats sank into the ice rather than carry us sliding and slipping. Without the cleats we would have slipped and slid.

So, apart from freezing, we were able to stride along with confidence, and clamber up- and down-hill with few difficulties, even when sliding backward on the ice-cum-slush. Jackie and Jillie had some company and we had some laughs when a number of dogs we know, on separate occasions came running lickety-split to confront Mr. Cookie-man. And, as it happened, before we left the ravine on the completion of our circuit, snow flurries dappled the atmosphere.