Creaking back to place

Overcast, cool, temps 10

Sunday in London - that can mean only one thing....walking up to the Brompton Road, getting The Times, and finding a nice cafe or pub to sit in, and read.

A tradition here is the Sunday Roast. It's a pub meal. Most pubs offer three choices...roast beef, chicken or pork. We might wander down to The Kings Road and try the Cadogan Arms for Sunday roast. But, frankly, it's more likely we'll just come home. Via Harrods.

Still haven't been in! and it's just down the road. But I think today's the day. Need to pick up some gifts - and love wandering around the food court (what else!) After I won the Creasy Dagger a few years ago we celebrated by going to the oyster bar at Harrods. I don't actually like oysters, but Michael adores them - so I thought it was the perfect way to celebrate, and to thank him. Such fun to see him and his oyster rituals. He's a very measured man. Unlike me - I hare off all over the place. Michael takes his time, and considers things carefully, often apparently quite gravely.

He studied the platter of assorted oyster varieties for what seemed an age - I got so antsy I also ate the oysters, just to have something happen. Then he carefully placed condiments on each one (a bit of horse-radish, a squirt of lemon, and dash of a kind of vinegar thing. It was his ritual. And he looks so serious doing it, as though if he didn't get it right the oysters would explode and kill us all.

But, when finally finished, he looked up with the most joyous expression on his face.

Then he ate 'em.

It would be fun to go back there today.

On a more prosaic note, we need to do laundry and we can't quite figure out the washer/dryer in the flat. Because space is so precious in London - and the two square feet the machine is sitting on is worth more than our house in Sutton - Londoners don't go in for separate washer and dryer machines. They're combined. One machine does both.

Or neither.

Ours does the latter. We've pressed every button - twice. Stared at it. Even Michael took to staring at it with such gravity you'd think it was an oyster.

But nothing. We called the people who rented us this flat - it's a vacation rental management company - and their person is coming over. Which is a very nice thing to do, on a Sunday. She asked that we perhaps stop pressing every button, which seemed a reasonable request. Wasn't working anyway.

How amazing to have no agenda....and the rough one we have includes the harrods oyster bar.

We hope to get to Westminster later in the week, before we return home on Thursday.

And wonderful news - Aunt Agatha's bookstore, this magnificent mystery and crime bookstore in Ann Arbor, Michigan, named BURY YOUR DEAD one of their top 10 books. You can see the whole list if you go to the aunt agatha website. Congratulations to everyone on the list - including two personal favorites, SJ Rozan and Stefanie Pintoff. yay!

Be well - off for lunch tomorrow with Michael's sister Carol and her husband David - then dinner tomorrow with agent Teresa and her husband Charles.

lilac and fresh laundry

sunny, warm, temps 25

unexpectedly lovely day. They were calling for rain, so this is a gift. Wayne is cutting the lawn. Lise and Donna came this morning and weeded - and planted vegetables. three types of peas, scarlet runner beans - and next week the broccoli will go in. Wanted Potatoes but they'd attract potato beetles, that will eat the lilies. So - no potatoes.

Did three big loads of laundry - including bedding. Tomorrow 'le deluge' - Michael's son Vic, my brother Doug and two of his kids and two of their friends will arrive. So we've been getting ready. Not sure anything ever is 'ready' for the onslaught. But it sure is fun...trying to figure out where to sleep everyone. Fortunately the sofa on the screen porch coverts to a bed and Roslyn loves sleeping out there...we pile her under a bunch of duvets and leave the doors to the house open in case it rains or gets cold or she get scared. But every morning she's still out there, sound asleep.

We always manage to find beds for everyone.

Busier day than expected...had to try to decipher the tax exemption forms from the tax people in France. I could feel my life-force being drained from me as I read it. But after a few hours, and a few phone calls to our tax people in Ottawa, and our accountant, I think I've figured out what they want. Either way, I'm mailing it!

The laundry is fun - two loads have been hung on the clothes line...our sheets. Love pinning up the laundry, and taking it down, with the fresh scent and sheets warmed by the sun.

Then I cut a few bunches of lilac and put them in vases around the home.

Black flies have arrived! Thank god for the screen porch.

Next week I'll start the second draft (first edit) of the next book. I'm sure enjoying these two weeks away from the book...but I'm also looking forward to getting back. I say that now, but I can guarantee on Sunday I won't be feeling quite so enthusiastic.

Breakfast tomorrow with Joan. It has been so wonderful to catch up with friends these past two weeks.

Speak to you tomorrow.