Other than for times like the present, in the random appearance on the world stage of a singular individual who is given the capacity through popular acclaim or political direction to present a personality in direct opposition to all political and social orthodoxies, we generally focus on what affects us most immediately.

Which is why our thoughts are often on the weather, and related natural phenomena which erupt from time to time to challenge our placid normalcy of attitude that the world turns in our favour. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, violent storms, tsunamis and avalanches all focus international attention on stories of regrettable tragedy. Our emotion tune in to the hardships others are faced with, but we are soon diverted.

More locally those not immediately affected, turn to the weather, surely the most topical subject of all when people coalesce briefly to discuss banal matters, eclipsing the fascination that celebrity gossip has on a vast majority of any population.

For people like ourselves whom fate has not embroiled in such events directly, and who have only to cope with the vicissitudes of human nature we are exposed to in our intimate and extended connections, it is the weather that motivates us to greet acquaintances with cheery or grumpy reflections, or alternately as the case may be, comments on nature.

Judging by our own admittedly limited weather exposure in this new year of 2017, it seems that this month of this year may qualify as the warmest on record. We are still locally in the hugely appreciated grip of a mild-weather phenomenon, highly unusual for the depth of the warmth as much as for its lingering effect. Leading us to think improbably, how nice it would be if winters in our northern hemisphere always hovered around the freezing (centigrade) mark and no lower.

It makes our outside experiences that much more congenial, and it is not only how we feel, but how our walking companions react to the mild, snowy atmosphere as well. Granted, these episodic contradictions in the expectation of 'normal'-for-the-season temperatures and atmospheric events are anything but uniform, with the awareness that other parts of the world not normally given to receiving cold weather are experiencing the direct opposite of what we're revelling in.....