There now, all the heavy winter carpeting is down now at the house thresholds, and winter boots have been hauled out, along with all the other winter paraphernalia and we're set to go. We're really into winter now, though it will get colder. And perhaps by then we'll have acclimated better to the colder weather. Right now, at -2.5 it feels as though that's cold enough, thank you very much. Snow hasn't stopped, though it isn't coming down in great barrelsfull. Just light snow, flurries, but because it's also so cold, it's sticking to everything, not melting as it usually does at this early winter season.

Jackie and Jillie are happy. They remember snow. And they like it. They've welcomed its return, but then, they don't have to do any of the shovelling. And there was Irving once again this morning, shovelling out the backyard walkways for them, so they could trot about at their leisure without getting their dainty little paws full of it. Are they grateful? They've taken to exploring, as though it is all new to them, every corner of the backyard, fully snowed.

So of course when they come into the house they need to be rubbed down, and they love that too.  Wait'll they have to be booted before going out, and then we'll see how great it all is for them. On the other hand, they don't mind that, either, sitting patiently while Irving tackles one little paw after the other until they're fully protected from icy surfaces exacerbated by wet snow.

I was in such a hurry yesterday preparing dinner in between late laundry loads that I mistook orzo for rice. I keep them both in large jars and I wasn't wearing glasses and they appear identical. Something felt not quite right, but I was too harried at that time to do a double-check. I was preparing my dinner version of a fish paella. So, instead of rice, it was fish with pasta which the olive-oil-sauteed chopped onion, garlic, jalapeno pepper, bell pepper and tomato accented. It tasted fine, anyway. But I did shake my head at my obliviousness.

This morning I decided we'd have cinnamon buns for a change for dinner dessert. So I put together a yeast dough, a sweet one with milk and eggs. This kind of baking is a little fussier than baking cupcakes, for example, since there are several steps that require time between them. The dough has to rise, for one thing, before it's rolled out and spread with butter or margarine, sprinkled with brown sugar, cinnamon and raisins, then formed, at which point it needs to rise again before it can be baked. But I had plenty of other things to do, and those steps fit right in without any problem.

Irving says he loves the smell of the kitchen on Fridays. When we come in from our daily hike through the forest with Jackie and Jillie, the restorative fragrance of chicken soup warms us as we recover from our exposure to the cold. The sky was fully overcast today, we had more snow, but yesterday's mean wind was absent.  The forest trail system is now padded with snow and just a little tricky. Which is where the cleats strapped over boots come in handy for safety purposes.

The landscape scenery is immeasurably improved now that there is a snow cover blanketing everything. The visual aesthetic goes a long way to enhancing our opinion of the winter months. Viewing the snow-laden landscape is one of the perks anyone can indulge in, alongside the feeling of freedom swinging arms and legs in a natural environment, breathing in fresh air and feeling a general uplift in mood.