Rose coloured glasses

Mainly sunny - for now! temps 15

Before I prattle on, I wanted to mention that My Assistant Lise (who really should be promoted to My Wonderful Assistant Lise) gave me a great suggestion...As you might see, I'm not blogging as much as I used to - just no time....but I do post on Facebook everyday. Now, I realize many of you don't want to know about Facebook, and you sure don't want to join. I totally understand...but there is another way to see my daily posts, if you're interested. Lise pointed out that all you have to do is go to my website www.louisepenny.com go to the contact and links page - and there you'll find the facebook posts every day. You don't need to join or do anything.

Just if you're interested.... Thanks for the suggestions, Lise!!!

Well, they do say April showers for a reason....and god knows the UK could use rain....there's what's called a 'hosepipe' order in effect. No one's allowed to water their gardens or wash their cars. Happily, it's been raining every day. Not for long, but violent outbursts. Hail and thunder sometimes. Yesterday we were having lunch outside (at Laduree - part of Harrods) when the skies opened. We were under unbrellas, but were still getting it.

By the way, we went to laduree because someone mentioned it on a post here....we'd walked by the sidewalk cafe a hundred times without noticing - but this time we stopped and are we ever glad we did (rain not withstanding). We had a small omelet and fries for lunch. Excellent. And plan to return for breakfast one day.

Michael celebrated his 78th birthday on Tuesday! We went for lunch with his sister Carol and her husband David. Had a marvelous lunch out. David drove us through London, which is an exercise in magic. Physics doesn't seem to apply here. Streets that are only wide enough for a slender cat seem to accommodate two way traffic. The cars hurtle at each other and manage to pass. I never see it, since my hand is over my face. Most of the great sights of London I have seen through splayed fingers.

It was such fun. though, to celebrate Michael's birthday with the family.

We've fallen into a comfortable rhythm here. I write in the morning, about 1,000 words, then we have lunch out most days and go for a walk - pick up the papers and are home by 4pm. Make a cup of tea and we read.

It's so interesting here - the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic is on Sunday (between saturday night and early sunday morning) and the TV, radio and papers are filled with retrospectives. It's absolutely chilling to be reminded, minute by minute, of what happened. And, with the perspective of distance and time, to have perhaps more clarity on what happened. Not so clouded by emotions and people either pointing fingers or trying to protect reputations.

But mostly, of course, it's the stories of the individuals, and their actions that night. We're riveted.

I'd been fighting off a cold or something that seemed to come and go. Sore throat seemed a constant. Now it seems to have settled into conjunctivitis. Pink eye. Very embarrassing. It will apparently go away on its own, but is highly contagious. And with Michael's bad eyes I sure don't want to give it to him. So, plenty of hand washing, and trying not to touch my very pink eye. It's also meant canceling weekend plans. We were supposed to travel to Kent to visit a friend tomorrow. Canceled. And Ann Cleeves and I were to have afternoon tea on Sunday. I'll have to cancel that too. Unless she had tea and I sat on the sidewalk outside....and wrote notes to each other. Very Victorian. Starring Louise Penny as 'The Waif'. Though I'd be hard pressed to pass as a waif, I'll tell you. Especially now that we've discovered Laduree.

Am hoping for lots of sun, so I can wear dark glasses and pass as a non-pink eye human.

As you see, no photos accompany this post!

Hope you're well - healthy and happy. I saw reports of tornadoes in Dallas!!! My God - how upsetting. Relieved to hear my good friend Deborah Crombie was OK. (Hi Debs! - miss you here!!!)

Hope you're enjoying London - and thank heaven conjunctivitis (as I prefer to call it - Michael seems to enjoy calling it pink eye) can't be transmitted over the internet....that we know of...