We had another dusting of snow last night, just enough to show the various animal tracks – deer, dogs, others that are unidentifiable – perhaps one of the many red foxes that inhabit the scrubby woods.

Amazing, how little there is to write about when there’s nothing on the complaint list. Although John Kerry did sound pretty weak this morning talking with Tim Russert.

Books: Banishing Verona by Margot Livesey. Zeke looks like a Raphael angel. Verona is seven months pregnant. Their orbits collide for a brief period before they are parted and spend most of the book trying to force their paths to cross again. The constellation of secondary characters (her brother Henry, a businessman of dubious distinction; his demanding parents) serves to support this quest. Zeke is mildly obsessive/compulsive; Verona lies her way into a house he is painting and nails a pair of coveralls to the floor to make a point. The oddest thing about this story so far is that despite her pregnancy figuring fairly prominently into the plot, there is virtually no description about her feelings regarding the baby.