A week today our younger son is scheduled to fly out from Vancouver to spend a week with us. There are no flights entering or flying out of Vancouver right now. They've been hit with a mighty snowstorm. Canada's West Coast is experiencing an odd winter season this year; colder and snowier than usual, by far. Whereas we in Eastern Canada where it's usually bone-chilling cold and snow piles up the entire season, have been experiencing a somewhat milder winter so far with less snow than usual.

Today is the shortest day of the year, and the first official day of winter. The temperature high for today is just 0C but it's damp and it feels much colder. Which means that I'll be carrying on with the comfort food selections. Yesterday's eggplant-tomato-sauce-cheese dish was just perfect. And Irving suggested for dinner tonight a meal that has quite a few similarities; Spaghetti and meatballs, with spinach on the side. Jackie and Jillie will appreciate the meatballs portions they're allotted.

We went out to the ravine a little earlier than the last several days, planning to beat early dusk setting in when the dark shade of night snaps down so quickly afterward. We were actually able to see a brief appearance of sun -- just as it was withdrawing behind the horizon -- which is to say behind the tree line seen through the forest canopy. The contrasts between the snowy landscape with its monochromatic black-and-white and the fiery ball of the sun made for an interesting canvas.

Often, when we're out in the ravine tramping the trails, Irving likes to keep up a running one-way conversation. On Saturday he happened to see two obituaries. He made no mention of them to me then, but he did today, while we were in the ravine.  They were of two men he knew rather well when he was still in the workforce. He interacted with them often in the last decade of his working life on a fairly regular basis.

They were both good at what they did as government bureaucrats, knowledgeable and a credit to the departments they worked within. He liked them both, thought very well of them, but one in particular most impressed him and they enjoyed a good relationship. He was only partially shocked at the death of this man. He felt that as a conscientious, hard-working, reliable and devoted civil servant he had been treated badly by his department after he had revealed irregularities amounting to downright fraud. They effectively neutered him, leaving him a crushed man with no option but to resign.

What he discussed with me as we walked through the forest was a kind of review of his own working life at that time with the last of the four different government departments he had been employed in through his career. Many of the issues he described I can recall, and he elaborated on others. Thinking of his two former work colleagues and their collegial relationship brought back thoughts of his own experiences, which made for a lively shared conversation. Everything takes on a different complexion when you look back over the years.

In the here and now, however, as we strode through the snowy landscape with our two little pups, we kept being accosted by other dogs, in singles and in pairs, all of whom dropped by to say hello, how're you doing, got any cookies? Irving is very conscious of the potential of these encounters and takes great care to make certain he has enough fuel with him when we set out to satisfy the needs of hungry dogs on winter afternoons in the forest.