Fete de Lobster

rain, rain - then - dear Lord, beautiful sunny day! temps 26

It was supposed to be wall to wall lovely today. Wayne showed up to do the lawns - aborted many times over the past ten days. Got on the mower, started 'er up. Took it out of the shed. And wham. A downpour.

Wayne backed the mower up. Shut 'er down. Got off the mower. And went home.

I spent the morning writing...then at 11 I realized I'd done more than 1,000 words. While I could have/would have happily continued, we had other things packing our agendas. Initially the idea was to write until 1pm then head into Montreal, but since I'd done 1,000 by 11 I asked Michael if he'd like to hop in the beetle and we could head in to the city in time for lunch.

He didn't need to be asked twice. So, through the rain, we drove the 1 1/2 hrs into Montreal. Arrived in time for lunch at Taverne on the Square...then dropped off a 16th birthday gift for Bethany - I hesitate to say she's the daughter of our friends Bal and Linda - makes it sound like Bethany isn't our friend too, and she is. We adore her. So we popped around and dropped off a gift. Then Michael had a 3pm doctor's appointment (longstanding, not about his cold, which is MUCH better - cough persists but that's all). At 4pm we left. By then it was brilliant sunshine.

The bridge out of Montreal to the townships was just about gridlocked. But once actually on the bridge, things got a little better. rush hour. Plus, we're heading into a long weekend here.

In the rest of Canada it's called Victoria Day - for Queen Victoria. here in Quebec it's called La Fete de Dollard. After Dollard des Ormeaux - a french leader who died in a battle with the Iroquois.

Two solitudes indeed.

Had a wonderful drive once we got off the highway. Stopped to put the top down on the beetle. Beautiful drive! Exquisite evening. All the more lovely after all the rain. Wow. In fact we're sitting on the screen porch. that's a photo from a few minutes ago. The lobster festival is just starting at the IGA in sutton. Michael loves lobster. I'm OK with them, but not a big treat. So we got him one. And I'm writing while he eats. This is something only people married 15 years might do. blog while the other eats dinner. (and you thought speaking on a cell phone was rude at the dinner tabIe!) But, in my very shaky defense, I only do this because it takes him about 6 hours to eat a lobster. If I didn't do something I'd end up simply watching him. Hour after hour. he's one of those who has to check every hair, in case... Such fun, though, to see him consumed with pleasure.

Yesterday, in the middle of a writing jag, I did something I have never done over the course of 7 and a half books.

I dropped pasta all over my notebook. At least I didn;t dump it into the laptop - but the notebook IS the book. Has all my notes. All my thoughts, all the details. The plot. From tiny little words to huge ideas. All there. And yesterday, while eating lunch and writing, my hand caught the bowl and... you know when everything starts going in slow motion? I could see what was about to happen but I couldn't stop it.

and - plop. Cheese-y pasta vegetable crap (not the brand name) all over my notebook. Gumming up the rings of the binding. soaking through. I tried to clean it up, and most of it is gone...most. But this morning it was as though I'd poured glue all over the book. it does give me pause, and make me wonder what that stuff is doing to my insides. But I continue to be way more concerned about what it's doing to my notebook.

Fortunately, I'm in the homestretch, more or less. Another two, maybe three weeks, and Book 8 will be finished.

Which brings me to your AMAZING responses to the ARC giveaway!!! As you can see, there are over 100 in the comments from yesterday, and we received hundreds through the 'contact' email. We're reading through them and will post the winners on Saturday - though how we'll even get it down to a shortlist is anybodies guess.

I'll thank you again on Saturday....but I do want you to know how much I love reading what you've written. How it fills my heart with gladness, that this is what I get to do - and I get to do it for and with you. You make this fun. And your messages on how you'd promote A TRICK OF THE LIGHT if you win the ARC have left me in tears of laughter, and tears of joy. And gratitude.

And, if you haven't yet entered the contest, you have until Friday night. It's for an advance copy of the next Gamache book. you can read the details in Monday's blog post.

thank you for reading the books, and promoting them, and joining Michael and me on the blog....and having the lobster dinner together. Oh, I must tell you, when we arrived back home it was to find Wayne had been again - and this time got the whole place mown. the smell of fresh cut grass...first of the season here...mixed with lobster. Life cannot possibly get better.

A Hard Frost

sunny, mild, temps 12

It's turned into a lovely, though chilly, day. Had the predicted hard frost last night. Frost on the car. Quite a shock heading into mid-May! But by 8am it had melted and by noon it was a nice April day. Too bad it's May. But I have to admit such is spring in Canada. You just never know. Which is why we're told time and again not to put our annuals or vegetables into the garden until after the Victoria Day long weekend. That's May 24th. Most years it seems a ridiculous injunction, and then suddenly there's a frost. This year it seems less silly.

Hard to access the damage done by the snow and then the hard frost. I'm thinking it's not nearly as bad as I feared. yay! As someone commented, quite rightly, Nature is resilient. Has to be. Otherwise Canada and certainly Quebec would have been a wasteland years ago.

Harvested our first asperagus, through the snow. Very funny to see the stalks poking up through the snow.

Went to Cowansville for breakfast - did some banking and mailing. Then dropped Michael at home so he could work on his book, and I went across to Richford. More mailing!

It takes me a while - like most people - to really appreciate I'm on vacation. We were sitting over breakfast and I began to get antsy to be going. Had to do chores then get home to -

ahhhh. To - nothing!! Like those school days waking early, getting ready to drag ourselves out of bed, only to realize it's Saturday.

ahhh.

Getting caught up on a while lot of things, but none stressful now that I have the time. Thanks SO much for your help finding a place on the Sunshine Coast...we'll be going a few days early, before the Literary Festival in Sechelt and need a place to stay. We'd found the Rockwater Inn (and Spa!!) - but it was booked. But we've now booked into a B and B called A Place by the Sea. Rooms seem huge - decks looking out over the water. Massages....and we've booked a private sea safari - all day, just us and the captain...taking us into the remote waterways of British Columbia. Stopping at a remote beach to walk, or swim and to have a hot lunch cooked on the shore. Sounds divine!!! Have also booked two spa treatments - not on the beach. Though that would be great too.

The only thing that seems complex is getting to Sechelt! But apparently people do. We won't be the first. The masseuse, for instance, had to find their way. But that's part of the fun of traveling. We fly in to Vancouver - then somehow get the 20 kilometers from the airport to the ferry. Take the 40 minute ferry (which is apparently spectacular) to the Sunshine Coast. We've booked a rental car there. The rest sound be easy.

I find for my peace of mind, I just need to give us plenty of time between the time the flight arrives and our ferry booking. And to remember if we miss the ferry no one is likely to die. or even be maimed. It actually doesn't matter. Michael is much more zen about these things than I am. But then, he can afford to be, he has me to do all the worrying.

Next life I'm coming back as a piece of luggage.

Lovely to see the sun. On the way back from Richford, VT I stopped at the grocery store and got us a couple steaks for the BBQ tonight. A few nights ago I stopped and noticed it's Lobster Festival! Sutton is landlocked, so not a lot of local lobster, but Canada has a huge east coast lobster industry...so I guess the lobsters have arrived. Michael loves them. I'm not a huge fan. So I went in and got Michael a nice, just cooked, one. I hate the idea of pointing to one in the tank and having them cook it. Feels way too much like passing final judgment. But am hypocritical enough to be happy to buy one already cooked.

You should have seen Michael's face when the lobster came through the door. he spent all day waiting for dinner time. And he found every morsel. Just adored it. What fun.

Busy day tomorrow. 8 am breakfast back in Cowansville with some friends...10:30 appointment to take the car in in Montreal - noon speaking engagement with the Rotary Club in Montreal. But I should be back at the apartment by 2pm.

pat and Tony coming first thing in the morning, with their dogs, to house sit. Such fun to see their two dogs playing with Trudy out by the pond. You can't imagine the wet dog smell from that!

Will try to blog tomorrow. Be well!