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.