The ice is melting and the glaciers have started to move. It's not happening quickly enough for the nationalists and probably too speedily for the unionists. Compare the situation now with two years ago. On this date in 1995, Mr Gerry Adams charged that the British government had subverted the peace process to the point where it no longer existed. On an ominous note, he said the IRA ceasefire had become "totally unanchored".
Yesterday Mr Adams was complaining again, but in a more muted way. "Mr Paisley thinks he can wreck the talks from outside. David Trimble appears to think he can wreck them from inside," he told reporters.
His impatience was echoed by the SDLP, whose deputy leader, Mr Seamus Mallon, accused the UUP of "childishness". But their complaints were rejected by Mr Trimble, although the UUP leader agreed real movement could only take place in bilateral meetings.
The good-natured Mr David Andrews and the chirpy Dr Mo Mowlam will meet this afternoon at Stormont to review progress in the talks. There are no issues on the table likely to dent their bonhomie, and no doubt afterwards they will report to the shivering media outside that there was a useful exchange of views and that both governments reiterated their determination to move the process forward.
So far, the dissatisfaction starting to bubble up on the nationalist side has not percolated to the level of the two governments. But there have been reports of republican rumblings over an extradition case here, a long sentence there. The subtleties of the separation of powers are not always obvious to republicans.
In the meeting, Mr Andrews will express satisfaction at the recent British decision to transfer three more republican prisoners to the Republic, but he will also raise humanitarian concerns over the Rois in McAliskey extradition case. However, no dramatic developments on prisoners are expected: that nettle remains ungrasped.
The main focus will be how to move the talks into serious negotiations on the key issues. "The mood is good," sources on the Irish side reported. Indeed, both governments seem to be still basking in the satisfaction of having achieved the goal of getting Sinn Fein and the unionists into the same room.
Rather than seeking to wreck the process, the unionists seem to be genuinely ambivalent about it. Scepticism over prospects for a settlement are combined with an almost-wistful desire to make a deal with the SDLP that could be carried in a referendum.
The by-play over Articles Two and Three of the Constitution has been dismissed as grandstanding by nationalists, but there is a real danger these could become a new stumbling-block in the talks, as decommissioning did before.
Senior UUP sources said they were anxious to see the Government's proposed wording for changes in Articles Two and Three. "If there is going to be North-South co-operation it has to be predicated upon the basis that the people you are working with don't have a constitutional imperative to take you over."
Intelligent UUP insiders know they can win significant gains from a successful talks process, e.g. a Northern Ireland assembly with devolved powers; the "continuation" of the Union with Britain; an end or at least a significant redrafting of the "hated Diktat", which is unionist-speak for the Anglo-Irish Agreement. "The downside is the cross-Border stuff and power-sharing."
SDLP sources said there was now a "paper mountain" of submissions from the various parties about the different items of the talks agenda. This phase of the talks should be concluded in the next two or three weeks and then it will start to become clear if this process is "for real" or not.
Nationalists see the role of Mr Tony Blair in all this as crucial. Having helped the unionists over the decommissioning obstacle he will now have to convince the UUP its best interests lie in an allout bid for a settlement.
Any indication of complacency on the British side will quickly bring about a consensus of complaint from nationalists. So far there is no sign of complacency, but it is not clear that the two governments are working to the same timescale.
The expected departure of Mr Dick Spring as Labour leader brings back memories of his efforts to keep the process alive in a far more difficult time than the present. Like Sisyphus, he helped push the stone to the top of the hill only to see it crash down in disaster after Canary Wharf. If it had not been for Mr Spring, it would have crashed long before that.
Insiders say that when the full story of his work behind the scenes is written, it will emerge that he "went the extra mile for peace" more than once. It would be a pity if his wisdom and experience in this area were lost to the political process.