Charlotte, is that a pile of bear droppings?

sunny, gorgeous day, temps 11

Not, perhaps, as warm as some days but again the wind is calm - so it feels like a perfect spring day.

Took Trudy for a walk this morning..she got halfway into the field and took off for our front lawn - quite a distance away. I watched her, then decided if she was there I might as well feed the birds.

The first sign of trouble came when I noticed the large open birdfeeder had been ripped apart. I thought - raccoon. Then I noticed that the tubular birdfeeder that is attached to the house by a metal rod was missing completely and the metal rod was bent.

Then I saw a huge pile of steaming you-know-what on the lawn, about the size of Billy Crystal. I immediately called - 'Michaaaael!'

He was in the kitchen and came running out, in his slippers, sweats and sweater. I pointed to what had been our birdfeeders - then the pile.

Bears. Big bears. Then we looked at the metal garbage can we keep the birdseed in. It was over on its side, dented and the top torn off. Oddly, the bad of seed was still in it.

This was very exciting. I don't mind bears at all - though I don't think I'll be sleeping on the screen porch anytime soon...and we made sure we locked the doors...in case this was a bear of considerable brain. What surprised us was that we heard nothing...and our bedroom look out over the front lawn.

We called Tony who confirmed it was a bear...and when asked about the crushed metal garbage can and why we didn't hear it he said that bears are very, very quiet.

We let that be.

I used to think it must be quite glamourous to be a writer. Now I know it's mostly sitting around in flannels and the most exciting conversation is about piles of crap in the front yard. I think Emily Bronte must have found the same thing.

The good news is the crap is now on the front lawn and no longer on the page. But it seems a karmic thing with me. If I'm not dreaming of toilets I'm afraid my book is crap, or I'm actually finding not effete little deer droppings, but massive mountains of it on the lawn.

Saved a frog out of the pool this morning too. I'd like to see the Bronte's beat that.

As an addendum to this post, Tony just dropped by - to look at the dropping (yup, bear)and put the battery back in the tractor. He was also going to pick up the poop and toss it into the woods but decided to leave it there.

Why, Tony? I asked.

As a conversation piece, he said.

Obviously Tony knows just how sparkling our conversation normally is, that it can be helped along by a pile of crap on the lawn.

Joyeux Fete

sunny, cloudy, drizzle, temps 20

Happy St Jean Baptiste! The patron saint of Quebec. This is the major holiday here. Fireworks, bonfires, concerts. The streets of Sutton are festooned with Fleurs de Lys flags (flag of Quebec). This is the unofficial start of holidays. And, actually - the week between St Jean Baptiste (the major French celebration) and Canada Day (July 1st - the major anglo celebration) is the timing for the fourth book in the series. THE MURDER STONE/A RULE AGAINST MURDER is set in that week.

Thunderstorm out now. too bad - always feel sorry for the organizors of all the events. Still, it will probably pass soon.

We don't really celebrate it - we do have a celebration on Canada Day, though. We have my brother Doug and four kids (ages 9-11) arriving on Friday. We bought (besides aspirin) a bunch of sparklers for the kids, and Michael. Used to be such fun writing our names (what else?) in light.

We have Monopoly and Checkers, Backgammon and I plan to buy Mad Magazine and a whole lot of comic books. I used to love all that as a kid. These kids might prefer the DVD's though. Oh well. We figure coming here is like visiting Grandpa and Grandma...lots of treats. And we go to bed early.

Edited two more chapters of book 5 today. My critics cap is firmly on and I have no idea anymore if it's crap or brilliant or anywhere in between - though I have my suspicions.

Had a very nice exchange of emails with another author at St Martin's Minotaur, Chris Grabenstein. He's not only a lovely man, he's a wonderful writer. His latest book is called Hell Hole and it's coming out this summer. He's won the Anthony and is extremely talented. As you know, I don't recommend all that many authors, but he's one. I haven't read his latest, but the whole series of Ceepak books are worth checking out.

We have chicken ready for the barbecue. Our trick (given to us by a friend) is to cook them in the oven first, then put on the sauce and barbecue them for the last 5-10 minutes, just for flavour. Otherwise, if we try to BBQ them from raw they come out carbonized on the outside and raw on the inside. Pretty good way to committ murder, actually.

Had a terrific book club talk with Lynn Kaczmarek and 16 others - by phone. I really wished I could have been there in person, and hope to be one day. They're about 4 hours outside Chicago, so who knows.

Made plane reservations back to England, for September. This time it's on Michael's business - he's been invited back to Cambridge (he's a grad of Christs College) for the inaugural meeting of a society of medical grads. It's a 'secret' society (as I kid him) so I'm not invited, but I am invited to tea in the Fellow's Garden and dinner in the Great Hall. Can you imagine how much fun that'll be?

And I have to say, Michael has spent 3 years schlepping all over the place with me and my books - it's so much fun to once again be the 'accompanied' for him.

We're at 131,000 words and dropping in the book 5 edit! It might be crap, but it's at least a small pile.