It must be Fete

sunny, warm, temps 25

Glorious sunny, warm day here - as you can see, at least one of our lilac bushes is in bloom, the others are very close. Indeed, if you look closely at the photo you might see two geese who arrived this morning. No babies yet. What a difference sunshine makes - everything seems to come alive.

Wrote more than 2,000 words today, but not happy. I think it's close, but slightly off. Perhaps just too much detail....need to streamline it. But I walked a few times around the pond and stopped at the bench to think, and came to the conclusion that it needs tightening, sharpening, and I need to really pin down what I want this section to say and do. The purpose.

Sometimes scenes are long and convoluted in the first draft because my thinking is a little fuzzy. But I'll get back at it tomorrow. No use doing it now. I just keep reminding myself, 'It's all a process, it's all a process.'

Hope you have a great weekend. Here in Canada it's the Victoria Day long weekend, Monday's a holiday. In quebec we don't celebrate (officially) Victoria Day. It's the Journee Nationale des patriotes - probably to get up the nose of the Federalists. Either way, most people simply care that it's a day off! So happy Victoria Day des Patriotes - bien sur!

And it's supposed to be beautiful and warm and sunny all weekend. Wow.

the other photo is of Meaghan Westover, the young woman who won the first annual Whitehead/Penny Award for Public Speaking. We felt strongly, Michael and I, that all the work that went in to learning public speaking should be recognized and rewarded. A good speech doesn't just happen. A good topic needs to be chosen, research done, thoughts organized. It needs to be written, edited, times, and memorized.

Meaghan described going over it and over it and over it - remembering key words and phrases. When I asked how she kept nerves from getting the better of her, her answers was short and as elegant as the girl herself. 'Preparation.'

Remarkable young woman.

Thanks to Patrick Fontaine and everyone at Massey-Vanier High in Cowansville for organizing the award and the assembly and making Michael and me feel so welcome. And congratulations again, Meaghan.

Well, off to walk Trudy around the pond again.

Be well - and I hope to talk with you tomorrow.