Brava Leyla Fernandez!

First, a reader sent nice words about the memoir. I had a chance to read Loose Woman via the Toronto Public on ebook - and would like to buy a copy, please. I really enjoyed the book. I think you captured elements of growing up as a woman that really spoke to me and I will be glad to have the book in my hands as a record of a certain time and place, and people/mindsets ... I am so happy I read it.

Thank you, dear reader! 

Second, the dentist yesterday had nice words about my gums. "You have great oral hygiene," he said, after poking about, "your gums are tender and pink. No blood. Amazing."

Good gums! What a triumph. My secrets are: Soft-Picks, every night in bed while I read. And I keep floss in a nice box near the TV and when something long is on, I floss. Never do just one thing when you can do two. 

Thanks, Beth, I hear you say, for sharing your fascinating oral hygiene secrets with us.

Meanwhile, the gut doctor called; he says the CT scan shows the inflammation/ infection has cleared up and his advice is to leave well enough alone. He says, if I lived or were going somewhere isolated, he'd suggest taking the appendix out pre-emptively, but since I live in a city and usually travel to them, if it recurred, I'd be able to get help fast enough. But he does not think it'll recur.

Famous last words?

I went to Toronto Lynn's again for another glorious swim and dinner and got stung on the arm by a wasp. It has lingered for days, swollen and itchy. Those nasty buggers mean business.

Teaching has started on Zoom, so summer is officially over. I don't know where the hot season has gone, but I'm glad to be back at work.

And last night, as if to counter all the dreadful things going on in the world, like this ill-timed and ill-conceived election that threatens to give us O'Toole, a wolf in sheep's clothing, CANADIANS REMEMBER HARPER AND BEWARE! Plus Afghanistan, wildfires, floods, Americans hurtling into Fascism and the 19th century, and of course a tiny virus that is wreaking havoc everywhere - as if to make us forget all that for a few minutes, there's Leyla Fernandez. 

I used to watch tennis only with my mother and Do, who were avid tennis fans as most Brits are, but last night, I had to watch the US Open. That young woman is phenomenal! A sliver of a girl who looks twelve faced an opponent 5 foot 11 with huge arms - and beat her. It was incredible. It was heart-lifting. And afterwards, immediately after playing for nearly two and a half hours, she was interviewed centre court and spoke with generosity and genuine warmth. 

How I wished Mum and Do were watching. Maybe they were. 

I turned to the leaders' debate for seven seconds. No. Watching those guys piling on to each other with blame and angry recrimination - no. I gather Annamie did well, but hers is a lost cause. It's so depressing and scary. 

Here's a fantasy - this is a theatre set I saw in a magazine. I'd like it to be built at the end of my very long backyard and maybe I'd live there one day. 

Tonight I drank red wine, not rosé, and am wearing a fleece. It's getting colder. The garden is beginning to close down, in its gentle way. But still, the sun shines, and we've got a long way to go before it's cold.