Happy Canada Day!!!

overcast, rain, temps 16

Well, the weather is at least consistent. Spent this afternoon sitting in front of the fireplace...lit! With butter tarts and cafe au laits. Then had a bubble bath and watched an episode of Rome, season two.

Went off to Richford this morning....it's in Vermont...I needed to mail some stuff, get gas, and pick up a gift from the Pinnacle Peddler. That's a sort of Poste Restante...where mostly Canadians have things delivered because it's faster and cheaper.

As some of you know, today's my birthday. Fifty three. And you know, I've never been healthier, happier, more content, more aware of my good fortune...and I believe I've never been better at what I do. I'd nver, ever have thought in my twenties or thirties this would be the case. But how lovely that it is! I've LOVED my fifties. Forties were pretty darn good too. Clearly not wall to wall fun and joy...but peace and love and friends and contentment help get over the places where the ground suddenly falls out. And gummy bears, fig newtons, and butter tarts also help. Any port in a storm. And bakery in a crisis.

Stopped at the Abercorn Bakery on my way home to pick up Michael's favorite dessert of all time...their lemon meringue pie. To thank him for being such a wonderful life companion. I offered a kidney, but he preferred the pie. As, it must be said, did I.

His back is 99 percent better...phew.

Oh, did I tell you??? Bury Your Dead got two more starred reviews this week...

Booklist:

Penny’s first five crime novels in her Armand Gamache series have all been outstanding, but her latest is the best yet, a true tour de force of storytelling….Penny hits every note perfectly in what is one of the most elaborately constructed and remarkably moving mysteries in years.

And Library Journal came in today, with a starred review...

Superb…brilliantly provocative and will appeal to fans of literary fiction, as well as to mystery lovers.

So excited about this book.

And LOVING the casting discussions...and broadening it to other characters beside Gamache. Who do you think might play Reine-Marie? I actually think that will be difficult...and will probably be an actress I'm unfamiliar with, in that she should be Quebecoise and I'm not as familiar with Quebecoise actors.

I can see it will be a free-for-all when we do agree to a film/TV series deal...and then I ask you again. For real. Perhaps we can have a contest for walk-on parts...get a bunch of you as extras. I'm thinking if this goes on much longer I could play Ruth. Or, depending on the exfoliation, Gamache.

Hope you're enjoying the day. I sure am.