I do like it when Lisa goes home, but leaves the alarm on my clock-radio set for 6am. It gives me something to remember her by, and ensures that I wake up thinking of her. And cursing her. But mainly just thinking of her. Personally I feel that if the first hour of your day is spent in total darkness, then you know you've got up too early.

Anyhoo, getting up before the sun means that I've only just discovered the amount of snow we've had overnight. It's like Lapland out there. But with less skidoos and more gritters. Which is all the more surprising as this is what it looked like yesterday...

Compare and contrast with last Thursday's picture postcard. Obviously it would have been better if I'd taken the two photos from the same spot, but by the time I thought of that, I'd walked 200 yards further on and couldn't be bothered to go back. And anyway, I was distracted by the canoeist, and thinking how much more entertaining it would have been if he'd been out there a week ago.

In financial news, my sister's first Ebay auctions have ended, and my dynamic sales copy resulted in a flurry of bids for her coat (that's the stunning red pea coat, 100% wool, immaculate), and a final sale price of... $21.05. With the pound due to hit two dollars this week, that means she's made about a tenner. Minus my fee. I think they earn more in the sweat shop where it was made.

More shocking though, is that she received no bids whatsoever for her Wrap Trap, which personally was my favourite item. It's the secret of successful scarves. No, really, it says so on the back. Although I'd just like to point out that it wasn't me who put "Would make a perfect gift for someone special". I refuse to lie on Ebay.

But altogether more successful are the visitors I'm attracting to my website. I had a hit yesterday for the phrase "I caught myself writing go to bed". And only last week, someone searched for "inserting the breakfast pastry". Which to the untrained ear might sound like random phrases from the mentally ill, but in fact prove that there are people out there who like the same obscure films that I do. All I need now is a hit for "Father Knows Beaver" and I'll have the complete set.