hot but here

I thought I couldn't post here until the new website goes up, maybe next week or in two weeks, and was in a state, twitching — things to say! Stories to tell! But happily I can. 

Sweltering: 31 degrees, feeling like 35. On June 2! But it's going down soon. Too hot too early, but at least no fires here yet. Several friends of friends have lost their homes in Nova Scotia, and the Waegwoltic Club that I took a look at but was barred entry to a few days ago has burned. Can't say I care too much about that. 

We must get used to this. Heat and fires are how it's going to be.

Overwhelmed since getting back from Halifax, trying to get life back in order: a massive amount of pruning and watering, still switching winter for summer clothes and bedding, trying to get some groceries into the empty fridge, with limited success. Today, though, a trip to the LCBO to buy rosé. Yay, rosé.

I received the copyedit from my editor Ellie Barton. With her usual incisive mind and sharp eye, she has targeted a list of inconsistencies, a ton of hyphen mistakes and spelling errors— realiZe, organiZe — and words that have two Ls, like shovelled, and words that have one, tranquility. She also has a suggestion for a complete re-arranging of the manuscript. So we'll see. 

And the first iteration of the new website also arrived today — much brighter and clearer, but is it ... TOO bright and clear? 

So lots of work to be done on this very hot weekend. 

Received a note about Elizabeth Marsh, an older longterm student from some years ago, who died recently. She apparently mentioned me in the foreword of her book, so her granddaughter wrote to ask if I remembered her and could write something about her to the family. I certainly remember her; she wrote beautifully about her childhood on a farm in the Ottawa Valley. Her granddaughter wrote, She was a storyteller through and through, and even just from the citation from her book, I can tell that you were a driving force towards her writing during her golden years.

Very happy to learn she went on writing. Elizabeth was a born writer. 

I'm having a fascinating correspondence with Harriet Walter about the Succession finale, which was, of course, brilliant. Harriet wanted her character Lady Caroline to be more like she was at the beginning of the series, loose and a bit wild, but the writers wouldn't have it, she had to spend the episode trying to contain her three wild and crazy offspring. Johanna Schneller wrote a good article in the Globe about the marginalization of Shiv, the only sister with three brothers, shoved aside because of her sex. Again. Always. Brilliant. 

And today's good news: I went to the dentist, and the dental hygienist told me, "You have beautiful gums." Hooray! As the world burns, I'll take it.