finding new family

Heavenly spring weather! It'll go back and forth, hot and cold, for the next while, tho' I don't remember a mid-March this warm. Pruning yesterday, more pruning today, getting the garden cleaned up and ready to burst into life. Deeply grateful for all this Vitamin D soaking in - I'm sitting on the little south-facing deck outside my office, and I feel great. Definitely better every day.

The most wonderful thing: an email out of the blue from a British woman doing genealogical research - she was looking for information on her distant relative Percy Harold Leadbeater, my grandfather, and found my website and blog. She read and loved my Beatles book - "I still love Paul best too!" she wrote - has ordered "Loose Woman," and wrote to say we're fourth cousins. A kindred spirit who now lives in France! Before, I had only two relatives on the British side, my two cousins in Washington. Now another bunch of family possibly opens up. A huge advantage of a website and blog and writing about your life, my friends. 

Had a long Skype with my beloved Lynn in Provence today, getting caught up with family, friends, Netflix, reading, health. The greatest gift, after our children — old friends. And new friends, of course. As always, I marvel that someone I met at just 17 is still a most delightful best friend more than 50 years, and a lot of life, and thousands of kilometres in distance, later.

Have not been quoting praise for the book for some time, so will do that today, if you don't mind. Got a nice email from Bronwyn Drainie, Canadian broadcasting royalty, who said, "I read LOOSE WOMAN with great enjoyment - an amazing story told with honesty and wit."

And handsome talented actor Allan Gray with whom I appeared in many shows, wrote, I loved your book - have recommended it to several people. I was mightily impressed with your writing skills. I found it thoroughly enjoyable. 

Thank you, readers! Today I read in the NYT about something called BookTok, young people posting about books they like on TikTok, boosting sales to enormous heights, and once more I felt 100 years old. As I often do; more and more, I find myself listening to something inane on the radio, saying, "Oh fuck off," and turning it off. Turning into a grumpy old person. Nothing wrong with that. We're smart!

Yesterday a CNFC webinar on interviewing skills with the fascinating Denise Ryan. How I love learning something valuable while sitting in my kitchen. 

And that's it. Healing, feeling the body grow stronger, life returning to normal, plus spring. Blessings not singly but in battalions.