August 7, 2007
Pickle Me This goes to Quebec
Another exciting weekend, and Pickle Me This is tired of travel having just endured twelve hours of it by car. But entirely worth it of course, as we visited the paradisical Eastern Townships of Quebec for the wedding of my beautiful cousin/best friend Susannah, and her beloved Loic. An absolutely perfect day, full of sunshine, flowers, good wine and music. A bilingual wedding pulled off without a hitch, and with a Scottish piper for added cultural value. We were so happy to be there, and they’re a wonderful couple we’re so lucky to call family and friends. Find below photos of Stuart and I (representing my English-by-marriageness in millinery fashion), me avec mother and sister, and, of course, the lovely bride and groom cutting their gateau. 
July 31, 2007
What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman
Laura Lippman’s novel What the Dead Know came recommended by Deanna and Kate for good reason, because the book was fantastic. Please see photo below of me on the dock with a beer, and the book, which just about sums it up. What the Dead Know was an absolute pleasure to take along on a weekend away.
Two teenage sisters disappear from suburban Baltimore in 1975, and a dazed woman emerging from a car accident thirty years later confesses to being one of them. Police detectives must prove that this Jane Doe is truly one of the missing Bethany sisters, but the pieces of the puzzle refuse to add up, roads lead to dead ends, and it’s a meandering path taken toward solution. But oh, such a compelling one.
Here is popular fiction at its finest, well-written, well-storied, taking every advantage of prose. I love that this book gave me the chance to recognize one of my latest new words “postprandial” in print. That characters are bookish, there are scattered literary references. Multiple points of view are convincing, and the story so well-developed that I couldn’t put it down until it was finished, until the last piece had fit. Afterwards I was pleased to realize that time so enjoyed could also feel well spent, and that this feeling didn’t even have to do with the paradise where I’d spent it.
July 27, 2007
Pickle Me This goes to the cottage
Oh, how jealous I am of people with cottages. As great is summer in the city, some days I’d donate my kidneys for a dip in a lake, for the feel of a slatted dock under a beach towel, weeping willow trees, screen door slams, and the cry of a loon. Even for a rainy day, drops bouncing off the lake’s surface. And finally, my dream is scheduled to come true. Hurrah! This weekend we’re off to Muskoka for a cottage weekend away with my two friends oldest and dearest. Hilarity is in store, board games are packed, beer bought, compilation CD compiled (inc Spice Girls, Joni Mitchell, Guns N’ Roses, Dixie Chicks, the Chiffons, Enrique and Cam’rom– can you spell eclectic?) Oh I am SO excited. And books planned: I will be reading What the Dead Know, and I’ve just lost my husband to some book about a boy wizard. We leave very early Saturday morning, have a wine and cheese party to attend tomorrow evening, and from where I stand at this point, the next three days promise to be rather fine.
July 23, 2007
Not Kurashiki
And so here we are, anticipating next weekend in Muskoka in a big way (ha ha). Yesterday we got to Toronto Island, finally, and so it won’t be this summer’s Kurashiki. (Kurashiki was the city in Japan we meant to vist almost every weekend that we lived there, and then we moved away). We had a brilliant day, riding our bikes down to the ferry docks– we adore riding through the financial district on the weekend when the sidewalks are as wide as usual, but perfectly empty. We landed on Ward’s, and had an ice cream. Spent some time on the beach reading our books, and then we rode along the boardwalk. To Centre Island, which was perfectly madhouse, and great in its own way, and then along to Hanlan’s Point where we got the ferry back. And then we rode up to Kensington and picked up blueberries, and then up to Mexitaco on Bloor Street for food aplenty plus Coronas which surely undid all the good our exercise did. Oh well.
Today was not so notable, except that we tried our carrots– they may look bizarre, but they taste good. The big tomatoes are coming out now too, and they’re extraordinary. If all goes well, we might soon have more watermelon than we know what to do with (imagine that predicament!). And a bit of a low point as whilst turning off the hose I fell seven feet off a ledge to the bottom of our concrete basement steps. That was not so fun, and yet fascinating also as I’ve not been so scraped in years, nor can I remember the last time I lost my footing and failed altogether to find it.
In better news, I finally replaced the $10 Canadian Tire helmet I bought when we were broke, and got a fabulous new one— in pink!
July 16, 2007
Time time it was
Time it was. Friday night date, out for dinner and then to the ROM. I had no strong feelings about the new addition, except that I was startled by sunlight once we emerged from the wonderful Hiroshi Sugimoto exhibit “History of History”, as I had forgotten about the world. There is something to that. Saturday we got a new hi-fi, very exciting. We bought our old one in the days of impecuniousness, and it wasn’t very good– the CD player door had become awfully choosy about functioning. And so no more. Saturday night was dinner, theatre, and drinks drinks drinks until well in the morning with friends oldest and dearest, et. al. Somehow hangovers were avoided, and I spent today well in the relaxing way (though freshly baked scones were involved).
Devastating gardening event was that our two watermelons, whose development had been as thrilling to watch as a small baby’s, were ruined by some sort of creature with teeth. A sort of creature that doesn’t appreciate the treasure which is watermelon, as they disconnected them from the vine, gnawed on the green bits leaving gaping holes, and broke my heart a bit. Honestly honestly, I could have cried.
In sort of related news, now reading Animal Vegetable Miracle.
July 8, 2007
Store Bought Women
We shall save the island for next weekend then, as plans were thwarted. For some reason Saturday morning we didn’t wake up until eleven, and this morning we woke up to thunder. Fortunately there was plenty of other fun to be had. Friday night we had dinner at the Brown-Smiths (who become “the Smiths” full-stop come January how exciting!), and relished rooftop patio goodness and finally the CN Tower lit up. I hadn’t seen it before. Clearly I neither get out nor look up enough. Yesterday’s highlight was a swim in the pool at Christie Pitts– what a delight! Sweet relief from the humidity. Today was such a Sunday– I read The Portrait of a Lady (nearly done), worked on a new true story full of lies, and Stuart devoured The Raw Shark Texts in one sitting. This weekend we watched Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and adored it. You might remember that both of us read the book and loved it earlier this year. I love when a film can so well complement the book it came from. Two more days until the new Crowded House! And the big news? This weekend I successfully baked a chocolate cake. This has never happened before, as my cakes have variously exploded, disintegrated, failed to bake etc. But this cake is perfect, and easy. I shall not attempt a different recipe ever again. And tea of the week? Pomegranate Green. Yum zum.
July 6, 2007
Destination
My husband is a miracle. I was stomping around the house like a troll and instead of administering a good slap, he bought train tickets (!!!). Yes, come September we’ve got a Montreal mini-break planned, and I am absolutely thrilled. Plan to become a character out of a Hugh MacLennan novel for the occasion (though I am a girl and therefore that would involve inspidity, hmm). Further, in travel fun, British seaside towns gallery. I vote for Brighton, but where is Skegness? I am excited for the weekend. Travel still, albeit closer to home, we plan to take the ferry to Toronto Island.
July 2, 2007
When the sun shines
We went down to the new HTO Park down at the bottom of Spadina today, and loved it. Sitting underneath one of the fabulous yellow umbrellas, feet in the sand, reading away (Stuart is now reading Before I Wake and is stuck to it as much as I was). Boats were going by, planes overhead, and the expressway out behind us, and so clearly were we in the world– but what a perfect little part of it.
Such has been the whole weekend, really.
June 29, 2007
I wish it were a rhododendron
I write you from the weekend, which for me starts today (Friday) and, for most of us, lasts until Monday eve. And this has been my first day off since I started work, and I’ve spent it reading, and finishing a story I’m really pleased with. Having the kind of day I learned to have last winter when I wrote from nine to five, and what a treasure. I still think that now, even if these days only come along once in a blue moon. And this weekend is positively bursting with friends, which is glorious. We’re booked up every day, and even doubled booked some, and forces have conspired to make me happier and more assured than I’ve been in absolutely ages. The good times indeed. I’ve got a cup of tea beside me now.
