It's mid-January, when Ontario is usually very cold and knee-deep in snow, but Perth County has temperatures hovering above freezing, consistent rain, and no snow at all. This has been going on since New Year's Day. I think we got the winter that should have been delivered to southern Germany.

On the other hand, I'm not eager to wear the big coat and heavy boots that are normal January kit, or to put up with chilblained fingers.

Tomorrow I have a date with a builder's estimator to talk about my bathroom. I've had a lot of asthma this winter, probably initiated by the bout of COVID I had but surely made worse by the presence of a major mould infestation to which I am very allergic. Pumping myself full of steroids and bronchodilators keeps the worst of it under control, but the drugs make me feel wobbly and tired.

I'm not doing anything interesting with compost, and the house remains full of books that need new homes. The box-seeking visit to the LCBO (liquor store) hasn't happened yet. I must admit, however, that I'm looking forward to getting shot of the works of Sir Winston Churchill -- not only his history of the Great War (four volumes) and the Second World War (six volumes), but also his biography of the Duke of Marlborough (four volumes) and his memoir about youthful adventures in South Africa. That's a lot of shelf space to devote to an ... um ... "unreliable" narrator, as they say in literary circles.