Eye

misty all day, mild, temps 15

We're in England - specifically I'm sitting in the living room of the nicest Bed and Breakfast I've ever been in. It's in the village of Eye, in Norfolk and it is called Chamomille Cottage Bed and Breakfast. Stunning. Dates from the 1500's. And entire separate wing of the home for the B&B people...with our own living room, fireplace, wide plank floors, beamed ceiling. Our own kitchen with espresso maker, stocked fridge, etc...a solarium/dining area. And upstairs the bedrooms. Ours has beamed ceilings, a queen sized bed and floors our ski team could practice for the Olympics on! Very sloped...but charming. Breakfast is a choice of full english breakfast of sausages, grilled tomato, eggs, mushrooms, toast. Or scambled eggs with smoked salmon. Or kippers. Or eggs benedict.

All in stunning english gardens and walking distance to John and Moira's home, called The Guildhall.

By the time we arrived John was back in hospital. But another good friend of theirs and ours, Dick Oliver - who ran the Financial Times in Madrid - was arriving. So it was decided Michael and Dick and two of John's daughters would go to the hospital first. Then I'd follow with Moira and their son Nigel and daughter-in-law Rona.

It's been a very long and difficult day. We'd been getting mixed news before we arrived and had reason to hope maybe it wasn't as dire as we'd first thought. But when we arrived it was clear it was even worse, and it appears we have arrived on time, but just.

All the way over on the plane - overnight from Montreal to London, leaving Montreal at 9pm and arriving london 3am our time - 7am UK time - Michael read from John's diary of a seminal trip he, Michael, Dick and three others took when they were in Cambridge together more than 50 years ago. it was hilarious. Michael was laughing so hard he wept. Remembering those hellion, halcyon days. When they were young and immortal.

And this afternoon Michael and Dick went to the hospital to sit beside John. Michael kept vowing to be strong, but he was crying as he said it so I suggested he move to Plan B and not try to be strong, just be himself. Poor guy's exhausted. Resting upstairs now before dinner.

So we went in and took turns visiting with John. Holding his hand, talking about this and that. He was awake - had clearly revived at seeing his friends.

Always so moving to me, to see how much men can, and do, love each other.

It's been a long few days, but actually quite wonderful.

Started in the stunningly beautiful Vermont town of Norwich Wednesday...a really terrific event at the Norwich bookstore, thanks to owner Liza and Penny and the other people who work there. This is one of the great Independent bookstores I've been in. Vibrant, light. Amazing selection. And the place was jam-packed for my talk.

Thank you to everyone who came out. It was a rainy evening, and I know how hard it is to lug yourself out once it gets dark. I had such fun!!

Then after some sage advice I decided not to take Highway 91 back to Quebec (isolated and lots of moose on the roads. Hitting a deer is pretty bad, but if you hit a moose it will crush you - the body will fall right into the windshield, killing the moose and whoever is inside the car) So I went back the way I came - via highway 89. left about 9pm and was home by midnight. Very nice drive. Relaxing. A little fog, and was watchful of moose and deer, but that is life in Canada too.

Then Thursday morning we finshed packing, hit the road by 8:30...Michael had a morning eye appointment in Montreal. Everything is fabulous with both eyes!!! I had a 3pm dentist and a 4:30 hair appointment - and needed to buy walking shoes. By the time I arrived back at the apartment the limo to the airport had arrived...just time to go to the bathroom and with Michael we took the luggage down.

Got to the airport, got through security (ugh) - and onto the plane. Flight was packed, but happily uneventful, except when one of the flight attendents said, loudly enough for me to hear, 'I think we're going down.'

That got my attention!

It quickly bcame apparent what she meant was that we were beginning our descent for landing, but for a horrible instant it sounded like something else. But it sure woke me up.

The rest you know. As I said, this is a sad time - but there is also beauty. And simplicity.

I haven't had time to read any comments yet from the last post, but I will. I hope you are well, and happy.

Emeritus Professor Whitehead

brilliant, sunny day, warm, temps 25 - full moon

Gorgeous, perfect, still day. We're finally back in Sutton and wow does it feel great!

As you might be able to tell from the title, we returned to find a wonderful letter from McGill University, where Michael was a full professor of Medicine - that he has been awarded the honorific of Professor Emeritus!!!

We are both so moved and thrilled! What a remarkable career he has enjoyed. Teaching, research, his clinical practice, and running the hematology department at the Montreal Children's hospital...helping, or at least trying to help, so many children with cancer.

I cannot tell you how proud I am of him - and how wonderful this recognition is - and how well deserved!

Congratulations, Michael!!

I'm sorry not to have written sooner, but I headed off to New York City early Tuesday morning for publishers meetings, and returned fairly late last night. Shouldn't have been all that late except my flight got in at 5pm into Dorval airport, along with every huge plane in the world...and the customs was packed. It was ridiculous. On top of that, there were only 6 customs agents on duty for almost a thousand people. the line snaked around and around like a very ill-tempered colon. At one stage I thought they must have added lots more agents because the line suddenly seemed to move. Then I realized my metabolism must have slowed down and my body gone into survival/hibernation mode - so that a small shuffle forward felt like a sprint. The customs line lasted way longer than the flight. If I was a visitor to Canada I would never return.

Horrible.

I spent the time composing stern letters to my MP - which I then forgot in the euphoria of being through.

Oh, the power has been restored next door, which is good, since our friend Susan came down with us to stay the long labour day weekend. It's the Brome County Fair weekend, and we're off to see it tomorrow. Visit the animals (Michael has a thing for goats, but don't tell anyone) - we need to eat a famous Derby Burger, made by our neighbors down the dirt road, Charlie Derby - though they have competition at the fair these days from the bison burgers.

There's fresh cooked corn on the cob, and candy floss, and licorice sticks and pipes and fragrant, sweet apples.

Michael had another eye doctor's appointment with mixed results...but some hope! The leak is still there, and his eye pressure has dropped to dangerous levels, but the doc now thinks he can probably operate, close the tear and put in a shunt (which, of course I immediate associate with freight cars but suspect and hope that isn't accurate).

The Doc wants to take it slowly and give the eye a chance to heal on its own, so we'll go back in 2 weeks and the operation is scheduled for october 1st.

We have every hope it will work.

We both want to sincerely thank all of you for your well wishes...both those of you who wrote to us, and those of you who might not have written but who thought of us with kindness. We could feel it. And this comes with my sincerely gratitude.

New York City was wonderful. I'm slowly getting to know it. Feeling more comfortable, though I still get turned around, which is nigh-on impossible since it's a grid system...you actually have to work at getting lost.

I walked from 52nd street where my hotel was, down to 20th for a lunch date, then back up - so lost in my own thoughts and imagination that I overshot it and finally ground to a hot halt at 59th street. 70 blocks of NYC...and adoring every moment. Of course, the weather was glorious.

I'm very, very glad to be getting to know New York, and feel less alienated. Such a shame not to appreciate one of the great cities of the world - and what a relief to feel that happening. Familiarity...and perseverance.

This has been yet another unexpected blessing of my writing career. Without it I would never have kept returning to New York... and would never have grown to really like it.

Well, off to the bedroom....haven't even been upstairs yet. We arrived in the country around 2pm - unloaded the car - then I went over the the guest cottage and Susan and I hopped in the car and drove across the border to the Hannaford in Enosburg, Vermont. She had a shopping list almost as long as the customs line. I, of course, impulse shopped...one of my favorite things. Then we headed home - arriving about 5pm...then I replenished the flowers in vases around the home and cut some to take over to susan...then Michael and Trudy and I walked through the woods to the cottage for dinner.

Susan's a fabulous cook!

And now we're home and I wanted to write you with an update, and to tell you about the Emeritus news, which we're excited about - and the very hopeful news about Michael's eye.

And to thank you, for your support!

Thank you.

Golf

overcast and cool, temps 17

A few degrees below seasonable. But not bad...sweater weather. Michael and I are back in Montreal - busy day tomorrow. Right now we're lying on the bed and watching the golf...very exciting. I'm rooting for Ernie Els.

Started to write the novella today. Did 500 words. Quite a challenge. This is meant for adults who read at about a grade 4 level - but who, of course, think in complex terms. So while the story and themes need to be full and rich and layered, the words must be quite simple. So far I'm struggling a bit to get a handle on it...but I'm satisfied with the first 500 words.

Off to CBC Radio for an interview on this novella project. It's sponsored by ABC Canada - which is a national literacy organization. The books will not only, we hope, appeal to emerging readers but also help raise money for literacy. The books are called Quick Reads, and the campaign was VERY successful in the UK.

After that I have a 1pm book club and Michael has his doctor's appointment to - we hope and presume - get good news about his eye. Then off for dinner at a restaurant in Outremont, which is a 'quartier' of Montreal...like Greewich Village is to NYC. The restaurant is called Lemeac is a very French bistro. Outremont is where, in the books, Armand and Reine-Marie live. It's very Quebecois, filled with intellectuals and artists, professors etc. A really lovely, interesting place with great restuarants and boutiques. And bookstores. We're having dinner with my New York editor, Hope Dellon and her husband. Hope and Charlie are then going on to Hovey Manor for a couple of nights then Quebec City. I envy them this trip!!!

I'm off to New York for two days, leaving Tuesday. Will leave Michael to have quiet time to himself, to write and just lounge.

We also need - tomorrow - to get the power back on in the guest cottage! It's a good thing that after 20 years at CBC and 5 years in publishing I have almost no shame left.

Will report back when I can - in the meantime, hope you're thriving.

Happy Birthday Susan!!!

Gray, overcast, cool, temps 7

Dear Lord, my hands are so cold they're almost numb! We have the fire on in the living room. Happily there's a grate. Heading off for the shower, just to get warm. The coldest I've ever been, aside from frozen feet skiing was during the ice storm in 1998. No running water, no heat. Middle of winter. Finally got so cold we found a hotel room, convinced them to take us and the dog, then had a hot shower...and I was so freezing the warm water hurt. Feels almost like that now. Perhaps some shortbread will cure it. Yes, I believe it will.

We're back from our visit to our friends John and Moira in Eye - a village in Suffolk. There are villages with stranger names (though not many) in England, but few more charming. (having visited each and every one of them personally). Our friends have a Grade 1 listed home which means, I've finally figured out, that it's freezing cold all the time. We lived in our - you guessed it - long underwear. I'm hoping to start a new fashion trend. Will approach David Beckham.

Happy Birthday Susan!!!

Our great friend Susan aka Kato had a birthday on Thursday. I had it in my agenda, but got busy with Heffers and the visit to Eye - so forgot to wish her a happy birthday. But wrote her today - with sincere love and good wishes. She's coming to visit in a couple of weeks, so we can give her her pony then.

She reported on the hot weather in Quebec and there are flood warnings everywhere as the snow melts too rapidly. She said the news story of the week (Susan's a very prominent journalist in Canada) was from Quebec City where people have been fined for watering their snowbanks! Only in Canada do people water snowbanks. In hopes they'll shrink, not grow.

But, as Susan pointed out, it's not like the flood danger wasn't high enough.

Also heard from Gary today. He's finished the work at home and says he'll retire back to the basement until needed. He also said it's 26 degrees and sunny - roughly 80 degrees - in Sutton and expected to stay that way until we return, when a snow storm is forecast.

har har.

Massage place was all booked today, so no massage. Poor me. Why do these tragedies keep happening? It's just not fair. But - shortbread will cure that too.

Off to hose down the snowback that is me. Then make a pot of tea. And shortbreads.

Tomorrow back to book 5. Longing for it.

Eye-catching

Sunny, cool, temps 9

We're now in an English village called Eye. Not kidding - that's it's name. Gets less silly the more you say it. And see it. It's gorgeous. Picture-postcard stuff. Very old church, timbered and thatched cottages, tea rooms and bakeries. Wonderful.

We're here visiting two of Michael's oldest friends from his Cambridge days...John and Moira Buxton. They came to Cambridge yesterday to see my event at Heffer's bookstore, which is a massive independent bookstore in the city. It was a literary lunch, put on by Heffers and organized by Ruchard Reynolds, the head of the bookstore. Brian Freeman was there as well. When we arrived we were shown into the basement of the store, through storerooms and down corridors and past a dark and dingy lunchroom. Had I been alone I'd have been quite frightened. And finally we were shown into what looked like a boiler room - with sandwiches. It was quite hysterical, and very Cambridge, according to Michael. Very relaxed, almost under-whelming - and the more casual it appeared the more important the place. Heffers does not try to impress - it doesn't have to.

We had the best time. It was very fun, and funny. Helped along by the presence of one Mike Ripley, let out on day parole I believe. He's a fellow author and critic and extremely well respected not simply for his drinking, but his opinion. He came, and insisted on describing this part of Heffers as Mordor.

After the literary lunch, when we escaped the tunnels of Mordor and bought Mike's books John and Moira fdrove us back here to Eye. Spent today here as well - relaxing, getting caught up, being driven to neighboring villages each more charming than the last. Going into antique shops and tea rooms and public gardens.

However - it isn't warm. I still have my long underwear on! Lise wrote to say it's 26 degrees celcius in Sutton!!! It's about 8 degrees here.

Tomorrow we're back to London. Hoping to get back by noon then have a massage. And writing on Sunday.

That's all I want to do. Feel so badly because two kinder people would be hard to find than John and Moira - and I am enjoying their company so much - and Michael is adoring it. But a part of me just wants to get back and sit down and write, write, write.

Must learn to live in the day. Ohhmmm.

Talk to you tomorrow. From the leaded glass and mullioned window of John's study as I write this I see the parapets of a ruined castle, an ancient grave yard in front of the church, and chimney pots. Lovely.