Still on squirrels: coming back through the Arboretum, close to FWG, I watched a black one with a great mouthful of oak leaves, disappear into a cavity. This particular hole is one that some of you might remember because it is shaped like a heart and I sent it out on Feb. 14, 2007. It was such an appropriate-shaped hole for that day that I couldn't resist. I had to wait for about 25 minutes to get this shot of the squirrel sticking her nose out of the cavity.

And if you are despairing about spring really coming (because it seems like it is one step forward and four steps back this year), I want to let you know that I was out in one of my favourite wooded areas near Kanata, and I saw a number of insects including a Carabid beetle, moths, two species of millipedes, a minute snail, Muscid flies, and three different species of ants, one group of tiny yellow ones hauling around what looked like cocoons in their strong jaws. Chorus frogs were singing their little hearts out in a largely ice-covered pond, and a garter snake was trying to soak up some sun. So life is bursting forth, you just have to look for it sometimes.