As if in rebuke for my discouraging remarks of 11 May, today's lead editorial in the Toronto Star asserts that COVID numbers are gradually dropping across Canada. In the same paper, however, I saw five stories about surges in Alberta, the greater Toronto area, and Newfoundland.

The death toll in Huron-Perth is now 54, a picayune number by American standards but nevertheless disturbing because more than half of all new positives in this area are caused by "variants of concern".

The US news is full of photos of people loading many jerrycans of fuel into their vehicles at considerable risk to themselves. Nothing like that is happening around here, although the price of gasoline has surged to heights not seen in Ontario since before Christmas 2019. Since I tank up the car about once a month, if that, it's just one more thing I can't control and maybe it will get better, or not.

Today I shall plant a bleeding heart (Laprocampnos spectabilis) and a new hellebore, both gifts from my sister-in-law. Then I shall take the cover off the barbecue for the first time since last Thanksgiving and fire it up. Tomorrow I'm cooking chicken and ribs for the bubble. Also cornbread, and probably a green bean salad if I can't find my favourite kind of lettuce.

If it's warm enough tomorrow, we'll burn another box of Edmund's client files and toast marshmallows. What larks!