My email inbox has been swamped for weeks by charitable organizations sending out their requests, each one reminding me that contributions are welcome. I've got quite a few charities that I support and sometimes you feel just swamped with the requests. They're beyond irritating as well, when as so often happens you've made a donation to a particular charity but that doesn't stop multiple requests from that same charity bouncing right back into your inbox.

It is an improvement, however, from the years when charities you've supported sent out unwanted 'gifts' as solicitations for more giving, things like notepads, pens, Christmas gift wrapping, ribbons, address stickers, magnets, calendars, you name it. Annoying and unsolicited. I interpreted it as a waste of the financial 'gifts' I sent to them and was not the least bit impressed. If anything, it might induce me to 'forget' sending further such donations to these ill-directed charities.

Probably the best ploy of manipulating people into guilt-giving was those charities sending along their mailed requests and with the request would be a coin. If you kept any of these inserts and used them and failed to respond to the donation requests that accompanied these nuisance items then in effect you just as good as purloined them, a not-too-subtle emotional blackmail.

Not that I appreciate these constant 'reminders' any more for littering up my inbox; they're downright irritating, and completely unnecessary. Also maddening are the constant telephone reminders that come through from some charities you already communicate with through email, with the earnest voice of solicitation thank you for your past generosity and asking whether you would like to make another donation at this time; someone standing by to receive your authorization and your credit-card particulars.

I much prefer to make donations online to sending out cheques or taking part in those telephone solicitations, and if I can, prefer to use Paypal. The thing about Paypal, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Ever since they inaugurated their 'one-touch' feature, for the most part it fails. They had insisted that a special number would appear on your bank invoice next to their name to be inputted on an online Paypal form to update your account, but that number never appeared consequently that update was impossible.

Always something to gripe about. Like the weather. Speaking of which Canada's chief climatologist has noticed that the Ottawa area is still steeped in grey and green, rather than the usual white we're accustomed to at this time of year for what he characterized as "the snowiest national capital in the world", when I believe that both Moscow and Ulan Bator claim that title; Ottawa comes third.

Take heart, said he -- though normally we'd have had at least 48 cm fallen and accumulated by now -- there will be some light snow dustings before and around next week. Not much, but some. "Kids are going to be able to get their sleighs and saucers and use them, maybe not as much skiing, but certainly enough for a fresh white snow cover", he said with a certain assurance. He also noted that we've had miler than normal temperatures, but certainly not this week.

 It was -7C again this afternoon when we were out with Jackie and Jillie for our daily hike through the forest trails in the ravine. Because it's a Saturday we came across the presence of a greater number of other hikers now and again, but not excessive numbers, to our relief. The landscape to be sure, looks anything other than how it should. And although it's still a pleasure to make our way along the trails, a little bit of snow would be appreciated.

Not only for the relief of the grim grey aspect -- all the more so when the trails are duskily overcast -- when the lack of snow is put into high relief, but because the combination of the last several snowstorms having been melted away when warmer days brought rain instead of snow and when the colder temperatures that followed ensured the melted snowpack turned to ice, which makes for iffy conditions on the trails in some areas.

Anyone attempting to stride with any confidence in those areas is in for a big surprise; we see people taking mincing little steps of caution in the most-affected areas of ice, and even with our boots equipped with cleats for good traction, there are moments of slippage we'd prefer to avoid. Their little orange rubber boots keep Jackie and Jillie dry and warm, and we have the confidence of knowing they're secure and won't fall off and be lost as happened all too often with their previous boots constructed of leather and fleece.