November 24, 2008
Birthday Love
I’ve spent the past three month in a pregnant napping stupor, standing up friends, missing out on events and generally ensuring I was in bed by nine every night. Also staying in bed as long as possible in the mornings and napping through my lunch. As I move into my second trimester, however, there begins to be some light. You’ll not have seen any evidence of it here though, as I’ve spent the last two weeks writing for deadlines and working very hard, in addition to my day job (where I work less hard, but it still takes up time). Going forward, I expect to have a little more time free and you can expect to see some content up here more than once in a while!
This past weekend’s excuse was a good one though, as I spent it celebrating my beloved Stuart’s birthday. Now I’m up for celebrating Stuart at any time, but a special weekend set aside for him couldn’t be more deserved. We had a house full of friends over last night who felt similarly, and it was a wonderful time– I stayed up until 1:00, which is now the beginning of the second middle of the night in my new life. Never mind I could hardly stand or talk, I was there till the end. It was fabulous, if just a little crowded. We’ve spent today eating the leftover dips and crackers and cheese (and cake!), as well as taking in some brunch and spending a couple of hours at the ROM this afternoon (we recommend the Unbuilt Toronto exhibition).
So happy birthday to Stuart, who is my every dream come true. My partner on all my best adventures and on the most exciting still to come. Every year I marvel as what you’ve accomplished for yourself and for us, and I always know how lucky I am.
September 14, 2008
Unremarkable
Unremarkable weekend, whose highlight was the purchase of trackpants. Which was actually all I wanted from a weekend, we’ve been so busy lately. And also because I was reading American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld, which is one of the best books I’ve read this year, and I didn’t want to do anything but read it. Now reading I Know You Are but What Am I? by Heather Birrell, and I love it– does Coach House ever fail? A short kidlit kick after that, with Nobody’s Family Is Going to Change by Louise Fitzhugh, and Up and Down the Scratchy Mountains by Laurel Snyder. And then I have to read The Diving Bell and the Butterfly because my husband’s been nagging me to do so for months.
September 9, 2008
Once in the world
“I think,” writes Rebecca Rosenblum, of the moment she first saw her book, “once in a while, something can be exactly as good as you dreamt it would be.”
Rebecca’s story collection Once is now out in the world, and we spotted it yesterday in a stack at the Eden Mills Writers’ Festival. I bought a copy immediately, and soon after had the great pleasure of listening to Rebecca read from the first story “ContEd”. Pleasure even in spite of the rain, because Rebecca read so beautifully. She even made the sun came out, and so for the rest of day we were dry.
Afterwards, we saw every author I was hoping to see as noted in the post below. And also Dennis Lee, who didn’t seem to remember me from the time he came to my school when I was five.
- Click here to buy Rebecca’s book. She is not the kind of writer I promote because she’s my friend, but rather because she’s the kind of writer so talented I can’t quite believe that she’s my friend. Once should stocked in the shops by some time next week.
- Attend Rebecca’s launch if you can. Monday September 15, 2008 at 7:00. The Gladstone Hotel, Toronto.
September 5, 2008
Eden Mills & Weekend
We’ve got a packed weekend here, with three (3!) social engagements tomorrow: out for brunch, friends for tea (with a baby!) and then a friend for dinner.
On Sunday I’m off for the day to the Eden Mills Writers Festival with Rebecca Rosenblum. I am looking forward to hearing Rebecca read (from her forthcoming book, out in over a week), and other writers too, including Shari Lapena, Janice Kulyk Keefer, Mariko Tamaki, Susan Juby and Leon Rooke. Looking forward also to the announcement of the winner of the 2008 Literary Contest, particularly as my short story “Still Born Friends” is on the shortlist!
September 3, 2008
Delightful Things
This past weekend, because it was long, because it was summery weather, and because my sister-in-law was staying with us, we indulged in delightful things. Chocolate raspberry tarts at Dessert Trends, a sunny afternoon at Riverdale Farm, bbq indulgences (esp. corn on the cob and mmm that grilled peach blue cheese salad was good), a trip out of town to the Twenty Valley where we loaded up on gorgeous produce from a roadside stand, and then to Ward’s Island yesterday, to wade in the warm (!) and gorgeous Lake Ontario and dinner at The Rectory Cafe. All in all a perfect way to kiss goodbye the summer, or perhaps more to give summer a whole lot of temptation to stay. Just a little bit longer?
We’d been discussing Rosie Little earlier this week, my sister-in-law and I, having both fallen in love with Danielle Wood’s tales something fierce. And we were talking about the restaurant in Vancouver where Rosie has tea at the end of the book– The Junction Tea Room? (Which I cannot
verify, as my downstairs neighbour has borrowed my copy for a holiday to Japan). And how we wished the magical tea room was real, but a fruitless Google search suggested it wasn’t. Alas. And then come Sunday afternoon in Jordan Ontario, we find the only parking space in down right out from of the Twenty Valley Tea House.
We had a brilliant afternoon tea there, sun pouring in through the windows. As at The Junction Tea Room, we got to select our own cups and saucers, mismatched and gorgeous. A hat racked mounted with chapeaus and feathers was there for our pleasure, should we choose to
partake. Oh, the tea was delicious, the cakes and triangle sandwiches. Ok, there was no cream (no cream?!) but the scones were so moist and flavourful, none was really required. We ate in tiny bites, morsels, in that afternoon tea way that always has us come out stuffed. Afterwards, a browse in the gift shop, with tea goods for our pleasure. All in all, a superlative teaish experience. Even worthy of fiction…
August 17, 2008
Day Trippers
We took a day-trip to Elora yesterday, leaving the city behind to escape into many countrysides. The sun shone from its rise until its setting, and we had a wonderful patio lunch on the banks of the river. Lots of browsing in the shops and some triumphant finds (though there wasn’t a bookstore in sight. How can that be?). We bought blueberries and pickles from the farmer’s market. We climbed down into the gorge and waded in the river, and then sat on a rock and watched the rapids. I am so lucky to spend my time with a man who understands it is important to spend afternoons in green parks reading (although he felt this more than usual yesterday, as he was in the middle of The Killing Circle). We had a brilliant dinner at the Elora Mill, and drove back into the city, arriving home just as sun was set.
August 10, 2008
You can't control it all
This weekend, I found myself in the ridiculous predicament of only having delightful things to have to do. Not counting the things I didn’t have to do, like go out for lunch with my husband, take a long long walk up to the Type Books location in Forest Hill. But that my to-do list contained the following: 1 Bake two blueberry pies; 2 Finish knitting cardigan (which has been on-going for ten months; 3 Finish rereading the brilliant The Girl in Saskatoon and work on interview questions for Sharon Butala; 4 Continue work upon my own story (which has just reached 25,000 words; 5 read the entire newspaper (sans any mention of the olympics, of course, which made the whole experience a lot shorter).
You can’t control it all, though. The list didn’t include being awakened at 3:55 am by a massive explosion that shook our house and turned the sky a fiery orange (and do note how far away we live from where the explosion occurred). A blast so powerful it made my husband roll over in his sleep (and this is remarkable, mind you). Nor did the list include me not going back to bed until past sunrise (after listening to the radio in my cold and darkened kitchen [it was thirteen degrees, news and weather together] searching the internet for more news and finding only a livejournal forum [which proved quite informative, actually]). Oh, it was frightening, it really was and we are so fortunate that devastation was remarkably contained and that so few people were hurt.
August 5, 2008
This Weekend for Me
This weekend for me was four days long, and it was filled with ordinary lovely things like reading and writing, a haircut, dinner out and trip to the movies. Plenty of book buying, a lovely brunch with Moms, peach-pie baking and finding out our good friends are having a bebe! A trip to the ROM, bbqs a plenty, and then today to Toronto Island with the Caserights, and we had a splendid picnic under a tree, went paddling, and then Stuart and I rode our bikes from Wards’ to Hanlan’s Point, and home again, and now we’re absolutely knackered.
This weekend, without consciously intending to, I continued my Westness pick with a rereading of The Stone Angel. So glad to reacquaint myself, so appreciative of my recent reading of Lilac Moon for historical context, but I do think that Laurence’s skills as a novelist increased exponentially with the rest of the Manawaka series. Which, I’d think, is the most we could ask of a writer. And then more Westness with Sharon Butala’s collection of short stories Real Life, which is oh-so solid. And then The Killing Circle, which wasn’t West at all, but it kept me from falling asleep last night due to a) terror and b) I couldn’t stop reading. Review to follow… I’m now rereading Late Nights on Air.
July 28, 2008
This is a photograph
As in Atwood’s poem, “This is a photograph of me”: “The photograph was taken the day after I drowned./ I am in the lake, in the center of the picture, just under the surface…” Except that I didn’t drown, and I am just left of centre, but this is a photograph of me and I am in the lake, with Stuart. We’ve been away all weekend with our friends Bronwyn and Alex, who were kind enough to share their cottage and the BMW to take us there. And the weekend was such an adventure!
We saw two frogs, three hummingbirds, a snake(!), and lots of minnows. The cottage was cottage-perfect, full of thirty years of fantastic family history. The weather was sometimes good, and often terrible. This meant a massive thunderstorm knocked out our power and so we had to live as our ancestors did, conserving freezer-door openings in order not to hasten the ice cream’s melting. Luckily we had a bbq at our disposal, and the beer stayed cold, and after the storm the sun came out, and we went swimming and canoeing. As the sun went down, we made do with candlelight, and played Apples to Apples late into the evening, and then went outside to be ravished with stars.
We made an obligatory cheese factory stop, and bought a bag of curds and then went in and bought another. We spent plenty of time reading (and I writing!), and, of course, eating. Obligatory watermelon too, and we all pretended not to be terrified when the storm came, when the hail fell from the sky like wrath unfurled. We cheered when the sun came, and cursed it when it left. We also took 85 pictures, because we have a new camera at our house (exciting!). I gave up a lifelong passion for frog-catching because Stuart said it was cruel. We bathed in bug spray, and braved cold water, sang “Boom didi yada”. The power came back on this afternoon.
