Ho-hum, another day, another snowstorm. It is winter, after all. And this region of the world hosts cold temperatures resulting in any number of precipitation scenarios, from snow, to snow pellets, freezing rain, whiteout conditions, flurries, and full-blast snowstorms. Overnight we had yet another such storm, but it was a fairly tame, run-of-the-mill event. Nothing spectacular. Moderate winter temperature, no tempestuous winds and what fell was snow, not a mixture of freezing rain, ice pellets and snow in alternating layers.

Our bedroom windows were lit up with the luminescence of falling snow throughout the night. It is beyond comforting to be in a cozy, warm bed knowing that snow is gently falling and your eyes will be treated to a winter wonderland in the morning. Of course there is that concomitant issue of tidying up the snow where it falls in areas that require a clear passageway. So even while our aesthetic sense of natural beauty has been titillated, there is a cost to it all in physical energy expended.

First thing this morning, Jackie and Jillie waded through the snow in the backyard to do their morning things and they had to be towelled down from the snow covering their recently-shorn pelts. It was still snowing, continuing the overnight accumulation. Then Irving and I went out to shovel out the walkways in the back so that next time our little tykes went out, there would be no need to wade through six inches of snow.

The forecast was for snow to end at noon, but the clouds dumping their loads on the landscape below failed to get the message. By early evening when Irving went out to start up the snowthrower to clear the passageways at the front of the house it was still snowing.

Long before then I was busy in the kitchen, making buttertarts. They're one of our perennial favourites. Irving likes them runny, I prefer them firm, so I aim for something in between, but I must admit they're more on the firm than runny end by the time I take them out of the oven. Arranging the rounds of pastry dough into paper cups seated inside cupcake tins takes a degree of dexterity and patience. The pastry form comes out less than perfectly round, but ready to receive the filling of raisins, butter, brown sugar, corn syrup, egg, vanilla and nutmeg.

It was just hovering at freezing when Jackie and Jillie hauled us up the street to the ravine entrance. The trails, we found, were nowhere near as firm and tramped down as yesterday but that was expected. We did a little slipping, but nothing serious. Possibly we were too busy ogling the landscape to really concentrate on where our boots were going.

The tree-and-branch-clinging lumps of snow that remained from last week's snowstorm were now liberally slathered with fresh snow, a brilliant white world ensued, with more descending as we hiked the trails. No wind today,  unlike the past several days. The puppies were quite obviously pleased with their playground's new-old appearance of a bouncing comforter of billowing white.