Holiday 2013 and the ice storm at Glen Villa

(A belated word on my holiday, as I wrote this last week but have only just now started looking at my photos.) 

A number of things on my holiday to-do list remained undone (going to the movies, various home improvements), but the important things got done, such as reading and writing. I read a LOT and started a new story. We even managed to be a little bit social with two birthday outings and a New Year’s Eve Party.  And we kicked off the break by hosting one teeny tiny holiday gathering where eggnog was consumed (and I learned again: never drink eggnog) where we truly got in the holiday spirit.

We also went snowshoeing once out in the Eastern Townships, where the ice storm had wrought its beautiful damage. It was hard to stop taking photos. These were all taken around 4 p.m., as the light was starting to fade.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone had a wonderful long weekend full of yummy food, friends, family, and relaxation --- or at least one of the above!
 
This year's Thanksgiving was a musical one. I sang in a beautiful concert on the top of Mount Royal with the McGill Choral Society Chamber Choir. It was the same material we sang in June at Loyola (in preparation for this concert), and it was an incredible place to perform. It was a huge audience and more and more people wandered in and stayed until the end. It was also an unbelievably beautiful sunny day -- I was walking around outside in short sleeves afterwards!

 Waiting to sing.

The night before, my stepdaughter and I baked two desserts for Thanksgiving dinner: a devil’s food chocolate cake with maple icing and a pumpkin layer cheesecake.

 The fruits of our labour!

Halloween came early for my co-baker

We headed out to the Townships right after the concert, where family had kindly waited on supper for us (and delayed Thanksgiving until Monday). It was a brief trip, but I managed to  squeeze in a walk and even a few rows of knitting with my morning coffee.

We also walked some paths I'd never been on before.

A new path beckons

A mother bear with three cubs has been spotted a few times around the area, so we tried to remember to make noise.

 D. walking with a big stick

The ground beneath our feet

Ce pont n'est pas...

 ...a metaphor

We missed the peak of the fall colours, but there were still a few leaves clinging to the trees.

 Leaf-blanketed road

As always, the fallen leaves made for some irresistible piles.
 

 Mandatory frolicking

And I'd show you a picture of the turkey, but it got eaten too quickly!

One of the surprise highlights of the weekend was turning on my computer Monday night after 11 p.m. to check on something, and somehow, without planning to, starting work on a new story that had been percolating for a few days.  Sometimes 400 words take forever and sometimes they spill right out. Another thing I'm feeling grateful for this week.

last day of August

I’m not sure what it is... writing an email or a blog post feels inordinately difficult these days.

The summer has felt a little too quiet and inward, a little bit like I’ve been spinning my wheels on the writing front. I started working on a story that wasn’t working, then kept working it to try and finish a draft, convinced throughout that it wasn’t working…but that maybe I could go back and fix it?  And sometimes it does happen that things you aren’t sure about turn out later to be okay.  But not so in this case.

But the setting was beautiful, even if the writing was not.

        

    

Since I've been back in the city, though, things have been better. Old works-in-progress have been looked at, and I've taken heart from how much I like them. I've also been trying less hard to make the summer about work...and make it more about summer, with reasonable success. And there's still a couple of days left...

A writer to watch!

It made my Canada Day to be named one of CBC Books' 2013 Writers to Watch!  Along with a lot of writers whose books are in my TBR pile.

You can click through the full list here. 

For another amazing list, check out Amanda Leduc's Up-and-Comers on her (lovely!) blog . This is a update on a group of writers she profiled a year ago...although if you are a writer be warned: it may make you feel insecure and unproductive or (better yet) inspired to to work harder.

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I started this post over three weeks ago now. Travel and vacation has kept me away from the internet a little more than I'd like. 

To celebrate our anniversary, D and I went on a weekend trip to Franconia Notch State Park, where we saw bears (in the backyard of our B&B!), hiked a gorge, had some amazing pizza (jalapeno-cream-cheese-stuffed crust....YUM), backed some plastic duckies in the town Lions' Club annual duck race fundraiser, caught the 4th of July "Home Day" parade, swam in the lake, visited Frost Place on Frost Day, and fulfilled a long-time yearning (er, of mine) to go to a drive-in movie, something I haven't done in almost twenty years. I am going to suggest you peruse the snack bar menu of the Northern Nights Drive-In because it is American thing of beauty. We took full advantage with chocolate milkshakes, cheeseburgers, chicken fingers...and even a meatball sub. When in New Hampshire... 

Pickup trucks are de rigeur at the drive-in

Small town drive-in

The Frost Place, one of Robert Frost's former homes

Walking the trails behind the Frost Place

Hilarious scrambling at the end of the duck race

We topped it off with an amazing meal at Manoir Hovey in North Hatley on way home. It was the kind of meal I can barely describe because it was so delicious and delightfully detailed on the menu.  Fine dining menus are a complex conceptual/literary/culinary art form, don't you think? Basically (in a prosaic, incomplete summary that does little justice to the meal), I had asparagus soup, halibut, cheese risotto, a bunch of amazing chanterelles (pilfered from D), and notably, as a pre-dessert, some apple-tarragon sorbet. Notable not only for the delicate and (at least to me) surprising combination of flavours, but also just for the concept of a pre-dessert, which strikes me as a useful one that might have almost as much mileage in it as second breakfast.  

A week after our return, we came back out to the country for a working vacation which has included lots of swimming (initially, during the heat wave), reading, writing, and napping. Just a few days left, but I hope to try and squeeze in the time to finish a second story...

On tenterhooks and sugaring off

The photo above is of tenterhooks (from this page on weaving in Yorkshire)....and yup, that feels about right.  Not really like I'm on them, but maybe the back of my coat -- my feet dangling just a few inches above the ground.  A type of suspension that sometimes feels like floating and sometimes feels just a little bit uncomfortable.

I'm the kind of person whose sublimates worry into my body: rashes, upset stomach, eye twitches, etc.  I can feel both my arms on the cusp of a rash right now.  The season is dry and stress levels are high.

The book that I held for the first time on Wednesday is already here and there in the world.  From a Facebook message, I know it arrived at a bookstore in Guelph last week.  From a couple of friends, I know that the e-version is already available for download.  

*pause for nervous scratching*

Over the next two weeks, I have two books launches, two photo shoots, and short interviews scheduled for every form of media.  I am bursting with excitement and pangs of nerves about what to wear, what to say, and how to briefly transform from the realm of the solitary and pyjama-clad writer into a walking-talking simulacrum of a coherent and engaging author. 

The fact is, I am actually pretty shy.

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I did an interview on Friday night, but Saturday we went out to the country for a family sugar shack event.  We had delicious sausages, salads, wine, and of course, the main event, maple sugar.  Afterwards, I spent the evening chatting, knitting, watching children play, and napping in front of the fireplace.  Below are a few photos from the sugaring off.

A forest of tapped trees:

Sap boiling in a cloud of steam:

More of that same special magic happening inside the sugar shack:

Finally, the main event.

The children may have been the loudest in anticipation and appreciation of the maple sugar on snow, but the adults were all able to eat more.  Yum.

Knitaversary in North Hatley

What a lovely weekend.  My husband's parents were kind enough to let fourteen knitters (almost the whole group!) come and stay while they were away visiting friends of their own. We knit, walked, talked, and ate.  And ate.  There were three cakes, two kinds of muffins, beef stew, tortilla soup, croissants, cookies, chocolate chip pancakes, and tons of fruit, bread, cheese, and wine.  (As well as mulled wine and an inspired gin cocktail, thanks to P!)

There was also bacon.

Bacon on the grill!

My husband was amazed at how seemingly effortlessly and harmoniously all the food prep and cleanup seemed to go.  With fourteen kind and capable women on hand, I wasn't surprised, but it was wonderful nonetheless.  And A knew just how to perfectly clean a grill, even without a scraper.  (The secret ingredient is vinegar.)

Knitting in front of the fire.  

It was luxurious to knit in a room that held all of us comfortably (but still cozily)! Often we have to coordinate to bring chairs over to each other's apartments on knit night.  The resident speed-knitters K and J finished projects.  (Actually, I think a couple of other people may have as well.)  My hat grew an inch, but that’s about all I can say for it. Though  I've now added at least three more things I want to make to my what-to-knit-next-list.  There were also Tarot card readings and a fun game of Celebrity.

Snow-trudging in the round.

Sometimes it’s hard, with that many people around, to feel quite like myself.  But knitting is good for introverts.  I was also happy my knitting friends got a chance to know D a little better, and vice versa.  There was some teasing on the matter, but he did not in fact take up knitting before the weekend was over. 

Some of the photos below were taken by E and DD: 

Heading out on our cold walk before the sun went down. 

 (That's me in the red mitts.)

A photo from further out on the lake, where I didn't venture.

Paths and circles on the lake, heading out from the dock.

A. working on her circles.

Sunday was a beautiful sunny day.

Another season of the linden tree where D. and I were married.

I did bring three books with me (plus the one I'm reading on my phone), and I'm afraid I didn't open even one of them.  Nor my computer.  But for once I think that's just fine.