Capricious nature; alternately testing us with tempestuously extreme weather events, or extremes of temperature, tempered by the beauty both invite to accompany them. This Arctic cold that has descended so deeply on such a wide swath of North America, hitting both the north-eastern US and like territory in Canada has given us both record low temperatures and wild wind chills, as well as exquisite landscapes of snow-packed scenery allied with days of brilliant sun.

In the past, when we've climbed the White Mountain range in New Hampshire, we/ve seen signage warning of extreme and sudden weather changes at the summits, posted at the entrance to trails. We experienced many years ago, just such extreme changes when we reached the summit of Mount Clinton and sight was obscured by thick sleet and snow on a June day. 

The U.S. Weather Service has announced the coldest ever recorded windchill registered on the top of Mount Washington of -103 Fahrenheit. Here, in Ottawa yesterday we only managed -43 Centigrade. Glad we weren't on top of Mount Washington. It is so cold here that when Jillie entered the house after a brief encounter with our backyard this morning, she  was alternatively lifting her frozen little paws.

It's been so cold neither Jackie nor Jillie feel inclined to expose themselves to the weather, despite the sun, without being accompanied by either Irving or me. And our brief encounters with the outside convince us they're perfectly right; if they have to suffer, so must we.

Yet, yesterday just before dusk fell we were amazed to see a very small rabbit out in the weather, seated at the stair stoop at the side door, nibbling carrots. The little fellow made its way to the front of the house to begin work on carrots awaiting notice on the front porch. Earlier in the day black squirrels had been around, nibbling peanuts. Hard to say whether they would be in semi-hibernation avoiding exposure to this severe weather if food wasn't readily available.

We turned to the comfort of food ourselves last night, with chicken soup and matzomeal dumplings on the menu, followed up by chicken paella, fragrant and seasoned toward the hot spectrum of taste, then moving on to Chelsea buns for dessert, stoking up the inner furnace against the onslaught of weather certain to question our survival instinct's trust in the future.

Despite remaining indoors  yesterday and today, eschewing our usual hikes through the winter forest, expending energy and enjoying the landscape, Jackie and Jillie had no problems making themselves warm and cozily comfortable these two days, content to remain sedentary in their 'dens' within the house.

Yesterday throughout the day into night, the sky remained clear, the sun vibrantly bright but able to cast little warmth beyond the iron grip of the cold. Most of today was also sunny, which makes for a beautiful appearance, while doing nothing to mitigate the cold. But by late afternoon silver-grey clouds had replaced the sun, and snow began gently falling.