Living on metaphors and sandwiches

Stinking hot, humid, temps 30

And wow, was yesterday ever stinky hot too! Drove out from Montreal after the dentist appointment. There'd been so much construction, and so many back-ups on the highway we decided to try to back roads...wonderful trip. Very pretty and very relaxing. Cheryl gave us the directions and we only over shot a turn once - our fault.

Got home in time for a swim and to have the food delivered...a woman named Mary Aitken catered it. Dear God, it was fab. We'd already decided on a cold buffet - and Mary made grilled vegetables with a mango dipping sauce, assorted sandwiches including one made of ham and banana mustard - I'm not kidding. There were lobster rolls and roastbeef and stilton, there were endives stuffed with chevre, beets and mango. And lots more besides...WAY too much food - but everyone got a care package to take home. And we had guess what for lunch??

Pat made a stunning fruit salad for desert. and we got some handmade chocolates from the village.

It was perfect.

I continue to make small changes - my final polish before sending the book off.

Had a lovely review for The Brutal Telling from Cobbledstones - a blog -

With THE BRUTAL TELLING, Louise Penny has written another novel that appears to follow a familiar theme. A murder has occurred in Three Pines. Inspector Armand Gamache and his team from the Sûreté du Québec arrive, take over the local fire station, and solve the crime.

But things are not that simple. Three Pines becomes the place where we all live … not the community where we interact with strangers, friends, and family … not the place where we eat, sleep, bathe, and make love … but that place within ourselves, where we live with our convictions and our doubts, with our fears and our hopes, with our capacity for charity and our capacity for greed, with our ability to help and to hurt.

And the characters in the book are not the group of villagers we have come know. They are each and every one of us. But we are not portrayed via the persona that we present to others, and to ourselves when we look in a mirror. Our personas are stripped away, down to the essence of our being. Our souls. We are shown things about ourselves that we do not acknowledge because we do not know that they exist, or refuse to acknowledge that they do.

Louise Penny has written an allegory, an extended metaphor, one filled with truths as basic as the Ten Commandments, and one filled with how far afield man’s inhumanity can spread fear, distrust, and harm. And while doing so, she has written another book filled with her unique style of humor and wit that will provide enjoyment to those who wish to read lightly and not think too deeply.


My italics and bold buttons don't seem to be working anymore, but you get the idea. Wonderful review. So moving when people read both books - the fun, easy read - and the one that lies beneath.

Hope you're having a good day. Off to exercise then swim. Not to shabby!

Be well.