I last visited this area, which is not far from central Gatineau Québec, in August 2020.

It looked quite different today.

“Marais” means “marsh”. After a day of rain yesterday, temperatures plummeted overnight to about – 10 degrees this morning and the trail was dangerously icy.

Having foolishly left my ice grippers in Toronto, I walked as slowly and cautiously as possible to avoid a tumble which might injure me or my camera.

The only bird was a crow high in the sky.

Some botany:

NATURE POETRY

Announced by all the trumpets of the sky,
Arrives the snow, and, driving o’er the fields,
Seems nowhere to alight: the whited air
Hides hills and woods, the river, and the heaven,
And veils the farm-house at the garden’s end.
The sled and traveller stopped, the courier’s feet
Delayed, all friends shut out, the housemates sit
Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed
In a tumultuous privacy of storm.  – Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Miles Hearn