Healing Spirits and Perry Mason

mixed sun and clouds, spitting rain, cool, highs 15

No snow today. As you see, the bar has been lowered.

The dogs went in this morning at 8:30 to be groomed. Only got them back at 5:30. Frankly I was getting worried. Old 'worse-case-scenario factory' here, churning away. They survived - but they look ridiculous! We asked for a summer groom. last year we took Maggie to be groomed for the summer and they shaved her - except for her head and tail, so she looked like two different animals grafted together.

We changed groomers.

But, I now suspect, so did this particular groomer. Though instead of shaving them, this time it looks as though the person cut their hair with a potato peeler. Great hunks have been taken out of the hair - thankfully not down to the skin.

the owners of the salon agreed it may not have been the best job, and has agreed to fix it - which should be interesting. From what I can see that would mean one of them would have to become omnipotent.

Went and had our beloved Cowansville breakfast - then did chores, including trying to find just a plain, simple dehumidifier for the guest house. Susan says she didn't break it but... Anyway, we couldn't find just a bucket in a box type. Woods I think makes them. Now have asked Tony to see if he can fix the old one, which is what we should have done in the first place.

We're trying to be less wasteful, but sometimes we're more successful than others.

Michael's barbecuing hamburgers right now - they smell divine.

Got a summons for jury selection today! I have to appear at the Granby courthouse at 8:30 Friday May 28th. I couldn't believe it.

Just a few minutes earlier, before opening the mail, I was outside, staking up more peony, when our neighbor Nicole came by. She was delivering 'thank you' cards she and her husband Guy had made after the death of their son Martin. We got to talking - she told me how scalding Mother's Day had been - especially when people would wish her the best, then say, 'It's OK, you can still celebrate - it's for Grandmothers too.' Terrible. We both said that people don't mean to hurt, just the opposite, but that what had happened to Guy and Nicole was just beyond most people's ability to comfort, or even to talk. Her daughter-in-law, lovely Paule, gave Nicole for Mother's Day a video Martin had made - actually two of them. One of each of his young daughters. It was to be given to his mother after his death. She watched one - and heard his voice, strong and laughing, and saw him bathing his daughter, his body strong and certain. And she wept and wept. Didn't yet have the courage to watch the next one.

Another neighbor, Bobbi, from next door walked down the road and joined us. We listened to Nicole, and let her cry, and asked questions, and talked.

Bobbi has just received her jury duty summons too! Though I didn't yet know about mine.

After listening to Nicole we thought maybe we should invite all the women on the road to a ritual. Light the dried sage, do a smudging, and cleanse ourselves, and wish ourselves and each other peace, and light, and love. Calm and contentment. And mostly we'd send peace to Nicole, and surround her with white light and healing spirits. Then have cake and wine and diet coke.

We decided as soon as Bobbi heard about her jury duty we'd organize it.

But now that I'm on jury duty too maybe we should just get all the women onto the jury and do it there. Jury duty/cleansing ritual. Strike up a doobie of sage right there. come to think of it, that would probably put paid to jury duty, forever.

'Yes your Honour, notwithstanding we knew it to be wrong we invited healing spirits into your courtroom.'

I'll let you know when and where and you can join us in spirit - we can all send Nicole healing energy.

The End - almost - really

rainy, snow (!), cold, temps 3

Can you believe the rain turned to snow this afternoon? I was stunned - though you'd think I'd be used to it by now. such an odd, unsettled, season.

Spent most of the day writing. Enjoying this section. I can see the end now. Is this beginning to sound familiar? When I first finished STILL LIFE I announced to Michael that I'd written, 'The End', and he took me off to Hovey manor for the night to celebrate. Then six months later I told him I'd finished the edit - this time I was REALLY finished. He took me to dinner to celebrate. About 4 months later, again, the big announcement...the polishing was finished - this time for sure! He bought me flowers.

After a while he's stopped responding altogether. Funny, that.

Still, I have to say, that finished the first draft is the biggest thing. When I write the first words (back in january or february) and am counting every, single, word it seems inconceivable I'd ever write 'The End'. But now I can see the end.

Just don't tell Michael - he won't believe you.

The Mayor called today...I'd been told he wanted to ask me something. I began to suspect it was to play a role in the upcoming celebrations of Townshippers Day, which is being held in Sutton this year, on September 20th. I'd already had to turn it down since I'll be away - but I guess no one told the Mayor...so he asked again if I'd be the Honourary President, and again I had to say no thank you. I felt horrible. I love this community, as you probably can guess. And this really is a huge honour. But we'll be away - actually at a family reunion.

Hope my brothers appreciate this! Don't brothers always?

Maggie and Trudy are off to be groomed first thing tomorrow morning. Trudy's operation wound is almost healed...fantastic. We're off for our Cowansville breakfast and chores. Was trying to arrange a coffee tomorrow afternoon with Joan rose and Michele Brault, but it doesn't seem possible. Might get more writing in.

and will finally mail off the proof edits to New York - and do a ritual cleansing of the house.

Be well - I'll talk to you tomorrow.

Sunday brunch and the hammock's up - and I did neither.

mainly sunny, mild, temps 19

It's turned into a beautiful day after starting out quite mixed. Lovely and sunny when we wpoke up around 6am. We have no curtains on the bedroom windows so we wake up with the sun. Good thing we don't live in the Arctic. Then clouded over and looked threatening, and now it's gorgeous. Sat by the pool for half an hour while Michael did odd spring jobs like putting the pots for annuals (rather than the annual pot) around the pool - then, lovely man, he put up our hammock between two pine trees.

That's the sign of summer. It hangs between the pool area and the STILL LIFE orchard and catches just enough of a breeze to shoo away the black flies and mosquitos, and to be gently cooling on the hotest days of summer. And, of course, it's in the shade. Lovely to lie there with a cold drink and a good book.

Heaven.

But always a bit of a struggle to get up - mostly just trying to unwind it from itself. Like a Gordian knot. Thankfully we haven't had to slice it through yet.

Michael and I both wrote this morning, then headed over to the guest house where Susan had prepared brunch for Cotton and us. God, it was good. She made the egg dish you make the day before, with cheese and bread and eggs and mushrooms - and fresh asparagus. Yum. Then she found a recipe in one of our cookbooks - fresh tomatoes with goat cheese on top and proscuitto laid on top of that...stick it under the broiler for a minute or so and it comes out just divine. So much tastier (Michael reports) than the piece of paper I fed him the other day.

Now home. finally struggled out of the pool side chair, got the clippers, and while Michael wrestled the hammock I cut lilac. The first bush is in bloom. Did an arrangement of lilac, daffodils, white bleeding hearts and these arching Solomon's Seal. Now the whole home smells like lilac. Wonderful.

Also did some research this afternoon for the book. I find it helpful to do it as I go along, rather than read everything before I start, because by the time I hit the section on canning or the Galapagos or throwing pottery, I'll have forgotten. So I write until I hit that stage then do one of two things. Either make it up and keep writing then do the research at the editing stage and make changes then, or read what I need for half a day and get back to it next day. That's what I'm doing with this section, though there are sections I know I'll have to 'fact-check' on the first re-write - probably in June.

speaking of editing - I finished the proof edits last night around 11! Phew. Free at last.

Quiet night. Some friends - Don and Daphne - coming over before dinner. They're heading to Vancouver at the end of the month for his mother's 80th birthday and were kind enough to decide to give her my book as a gift - so they'd like me to sign it.

Have all of tomorrow to ourselves - except Gary whose coming over to finished work on our windows (which explains the scaffolding he'd put up - I'm relieved there's an explanation). We think of Gary as part of the family, though hope I don't discover he's there when I see him at the bathroom window! Having coffee with his mother, Joan, on Wednesday. And need to try to arrange a coffee with another Joan friend, Joan Rose and Michele Brault. As you see, when we finally do get home life gets busy. I'm so grateful to our friends for not dropping us since we're away so much! I know it's hard to maintain a friendship when one half is missing. So we try to make up for it when we do get home.

Speak to you tomorrow.

Co-incidence? I think not

sunny, warm, highs 25

Unexpected - a gift of a day. It was supposed to be rainy and cool and instead it was sunny - without a cloud - and not just warm but hot.

Michael, Susan and I headed into Sutton and were at the market before 9am. it was already crowded. Besides the normal market vendors the local school had tables and various groups were selling goods too.

We went straight to the baking table. Bought a lemon meringue pie, a rhubarb upside-down cake, a lemon loaf. Susan bought a bag of home-made doughnuts and pan of cinnamon buns. Then it was over to the flowers. Ooops, I knew there was something I forgot to tell Lise. I bought 3 flats of annuals, including butter-yellow snapdragons.

There's a huge amount of junk at the market - and we examined and considered each and every piece - then bought lots, including a vase and six glasses. You know the kind we used to get peanut butter and jelly in? With black and red hearts, clubs, diamonds and spades? Well, we now own a bunch.

That reminds me - we went to the Knowlton Antiques show last night. packed - hot - and loads of fun. Met people I only see once or twice a year. In the car home I was saying how wonderful it is to be in a group of 200 people and be happy to see everyone. Not a single person I was trying to avoid, or wished wasn't there (or anywhere). Bought a very nice glass vase.

Oh - one other buy at the market - one of my own books!!! In a pile of second-hand books which we always pour over. I bought it.

The mayor couldn't come, but his very nice assistant did - Richard Godin. He still didn't tell us what the mayor of Sutton wants. But Monsieur Godin is the brother-in-law of a prominent Quebec publisher, so in our talks he said he thought the brother in law should publish my books in French.

I've found it quite baffling that my books are translated into (among other languages) German, Russian, Japanese - but not French!

So I gave Monsieur Godin the book I'd just picked up at the market. Now isn't that a co-incidence? Had I not seen it, or bought it, I wouldn't have had a book to give him. Love when things like that happen in life.

Wrote for a couple of hours this afternoon then met friends for a coffee at Le Cafetier on rue Principale. Then off to see more friends - and home now.

tomorrow, brunch with Cotton and Susan (Susan's cooking - two days ago I fed Michael, by mistake, a slab of butter and a piece of paper.)

Then more writing. Enjoying this section a lot.

Off to take the US proofs to bed. I tell you, this proof editor is driving me nuts! She's putting semicolons in dialogue, adding exclamation marks (I never put in exclamation marks - it's very lazy) and italicizing words in the middle of sentences to add emphisis, as though you're really too thick to know what's important yourselves. Ugh. Oh well, I'm nearing the end. And Hope - my real editor at Minotaur - has given me an extra week to finish and has promised this proof editor won't be allowed anywhere near another of my books. I really, really appreciate support like that. She's great.

Off to bed.

You'll never take me alive.

mainly sunny, mild, temps 15

Lovely day - a little cloudy and not as hot as yesterday, but still lovely.

Gary and John came by to put the dock in. Took photos. had a hard time getting a shot of Gary at work since he stood around talking most of the time, but then he finally got going. (If I'm ever found dead, someone needs to question Gary).

But it really was so kind of them to come by. Will figure out how to get those pictures on the computer and put them up tomorrow, I hope.

Getting close to the end of the proofs for the US version of book 4. A RULE AGAINST MURDER. Phew. And I think I should be finished the first draft of book 5 by the end of next week.

Lise and Delmar and Donna came by to do the gardens today. As you see, a lot of people work hard to give us the life we clearly don't deserve. In fact, Michael I seem to be kind of in the way most of the time. Superfluous is I think is the word.

We're off to Susan's (guest cottage) for an early dinner then have tickets to Kirk's big annual Antiques Show and Sale in Knowlton. Tonight's the gala preview - get to buy early, sip wine (water) and eat nibblies - and meet all of Knowlton society. We're hoping to get away early and go for ice cream.

Then tomorrow morning the three of us are heading to Curly's market - the farmers market every Saturday morning in Sutton in the summer. This is our first weekend to do it. Want to get vegetables, a pie and maybe some roses and other perennials for the cutting garden.

And the mayor called this afternoon and wants to come up to our house tomorrow morning around 11. Hope if there's trouble someone will bail us out. But I suspect we'd just do our time and in a year or so walk up the drive to see Gary, Tony, Lise, Pat and Wayne lounging by the pool. And we'll be sent to the basement.

Serves us right. will let you know what happens tomorrow.

See how we suffer?

Overcast, drizzle, mild, temps 14

We need rain and we're getting a little today. Then it's expected to clear up and be sunny for this afternoon and tomorrow - which will be great for Susan, who's arriving for the Victoria Day long weekend. I wonder if Canada is the only country that still celebrates Victoria Day? It was traditionally the weekend cottagers opened up the summer place after the winter. Those lucky enough to have a summer place, that is. For most of us it was simply a very welcome long weekend. It's also the weekend when it's considered safe to plant the annuals (flowers). Before this weekend there's always the risk of a killing frost. Between you and me? There's always a risk in Canada - but it goes down dramatically.

As you see, we've put up another picture. This is of the spring flowers I talked about cutting the other day. They're the last of the flowers from the spring cutting garden - plus a rose I was given on Mother's Day. It's lovely to sit on the screen porch and have our meals. It was especially nice this morning - even walking the dogs - with the rain. Wayne cut the grass yesterday so there was this morning this wonderful, tender fragrance of spring rain and new grass.

We also now have green grass tracks through the house. Pat's going to kill me.

It looks like it's going to be a spectacular year for lilac. Our bushes are full of the flowers - not yet out. Another week, I think. Hope we don't miss them when we go off to England...but they'll come again next year if we do. Now, after Gary's construction - we have two new windows upstairs - one in the bathroom and one in the bedroom...both right above a lilac bush, ripe with buds. It's going to be amazing when they open! Imagine waking up to the scent of lilac?

Had a wonderful message from Robin who runs Aunt Agatha's bookstore in Ann Arbor (one of my favorite!). She wrote to say STILL LIFE is back on the bestsellers list! And The Cruelest Month has been given the coveted Black Diamond review by the website I Love A Mystery.

So far so good.

Wrote this morning - then got chilly and took a bath...and a few ideas floated to the fore. Very helpful, baths. Need to get a photo and bio out for the talk next week. And had to say 'No' with thanks to an organization called The Townshippers, who called this morning to ask if I'd be the honourary president of their Townshippers Day - which is being held in Sutton this year. We'll be in Toronto. I felt badly saying no, but I'm getting better at it.

Back to the miserable proof edits after lunch. Happily I no longer put off things I don't want to do. In fact, just the opposite. Now I do them as soon as I can - get them out of the way. Like JK Rowling and her wonderful 'Howlers', things I hate just seem to get larger if I ignore them.

Susan's coming for dinner tonight - BBQ'd duck legs, fiddleheads, fresh asparagus and probably a dash of mud.

Trudy's home!

Sunny, hot, temps 27

Well, it's really hot! Can't quite believe it. Keep changing clothing, getting skimpier and skimpier. But wow does it feel wonderful after the long winter - and that was just the April in London!

Here's Trudy, on our dock. She's home now and a little groggy after being fixed but besides that surprisingly peppy. We just need to walk her on a leash, which surprises her, and check her wound for infection. They gave us some pain-killers - will try not to take them ourselves.

Just got off the phone from a local man - Dr. Grondin I think he said his name is. He asked if I'd speak to his club in a weeks time. They have dinner meetings at the Auberge West Brome, just down the road. I said I'd love to. Then he asked the 'question juste' - do you speak French? What to say? for once I was honest...yes, I said, but perhaps not well enough to carry a 1 hour talk to people who've already had quite a bit of wine. Though, actually, that would help. They can have wine, I can take Trudy's pain-killers and we're all happy (except Trudy). I've given talks in French before, and run meetings in French - but it's just so much work, I'd rather not. But he was very kind and said his members understand English. I guess we'll see. If need be I'll try out my Russian.

Adeen haladeelnik. One refridgerator. Short, kind of mysterious. Almost poetic.

Trees are exploding in bloom - last of the daffodils cut - I put them in a vase and will walk over to the guest cottage to leave them there for Susan, who's coming down tomorrow. In fact, I put on my rubber boots to do that, then got side-tracked by messages, and thought I might as well blog while I'm here. My feet are quite hot now. I wonder if this blog is deteriorating?

Staked up the peonies yesterday and made arrangements for a local organic farmer to bring produce by every Thursday throughout the summer. Yum.

I'm off to take the flowers next door then sit out by the pool with the proofs. At one stage the proof editor actually calls Gamache stupid. I don't think that's called for. Another bit like that and the pages might find themselves falling into the goose poop zone of the pond.

Still writing book 5 - every morning and into the early afternoon. Things are coming together, clues revealed...stuff Gamache (who isn't in the least bit stupid) has wondered about throughout the investigation are becoming clearer. I love this part.

Be well. Be kind.