The coming storm was forecasted well in advance by Environment Canada, so we were well aware it was on its way.  Snow began falling just after midnight last night. And through the night it continued to fall. When I occasionally popped an eye open to glance at the bedroom windows they radiated light, the kind typically seen when it's a dark night and snow illuminates the atmosphere. A night when it's dark indoors and light outdoors, reversing the norm. Comfortable in bed, who cares ... we'd see all the glory in the morning.

And we did, snow clung thickly to all the shrubs and trees in the front garden and the backyard. Before that, though, Irving got himself out of bed, whispering to me to stay in bed and he would be shovelling out the walkways in the backyard for Jackie and Jillie. I did just that, snoozed comfortably while he was outside shovelling. Jackie and Jillie don't mind Irving out of bed, when I get out they leap to attention, so they snoozed too.

When I finally went downstairs with them, it didn't take much to take the measure of the snow. Wet and clinging, thick in height and heavy and still falling densely. Throughout breakfast it kept falling, and into the afternoon. In the early afternoon, looking outside, I realized that someone had shovelled our front walk and porch and the walkway going to the backyard. I knew it wasn't Irving, so it was obviously one of our neighbours. Likely Dan, our neighbour for the past 30 years. He started doing that last winter and it looks as though he means to continue. He is such a purely nice person, the very ultimate in civil decency.

I decided to bake chocolate cupcakes today, flavoured with rum. Took no time at all, then I kneaded up a yeast dough for dinner rolls I'll bake on Sunday to accompany a thick, flavourful vegetable-pulse soup. I had some laundry to finish up, the mattress cover, duvet cover and a few other things I had changed yesterday.

Although it was just before three in the afternoon when we set out for the ravine, we were met by a fairly dusky atmosphere, given the fact that it was still snowing and there was a very low cloud cover. It was windy as well, although the temperature hovered at the freezing mark, which accounted for the snow being wet packing-type snow. As we entered the ravine we noted with relief that others had been out before us, tramping down a narrow trail. 

We knew, from long years of exposure just how exquisitely breath-taking the landscape would be, but even so it tends to take your breath away with its beauty, each time you see it anew. Jackie and Jillie wore lighter coats, their rain- and snow-proof coats since it was so mild. They were delighted to be out in the snow. It's a rare dog that doesn't revel in the snow. We met only one other person, a man familiar to us, with his three dogs and that encounter was good for an interruption in our slogging through the snow, giving us a chance to gain our breath.

Ascending and descending long hills thick with newfallen snow is a physical challenge that winter snowstorms bring, courtesy of nature. As a workout that comes complete with a lovely landscape there's nothing quite like it.