Sunday 12 July 2009

Seeing the lightning, if not the light...

overcast, cool, temps 18

Almost jumped out of my skin last night. The rain came teeming down and was so ferocous I went onto the screen porch to watch it. thunder, lightning. Then a huge flash of fork lightning. I leaned forward to start counting how far away it was and -

KABOOM!

I had my answer! The storm was right overhead...and seemed to have lodged in my chest. I'm not at all afraid of storms (though Gary told us a terribly frightening story of having to hide on a golf course during a storm as trees exploded from lightning strikes all around them!!) but this boom terrified me. There actually seemed to be a percussion about it.

Went out last night to a meeting...dashing from car to door, getting soaked...the out to dinner with David and Lili. They have a stunning home and a fabulous view across a valley to the Vermont mountains beyond. David James is a very talented sculptor...specializing in glass. Lili is a marketing exec and sits on a huge number of boards, including the Montreal symphony. It was very relaxing being with them since we know them so well.

But coming home we would see the lightning in the distance...like a battle. Quite disconcerting, especially since the storm seemed stalled over our home. But everything turned out OK.

Deer are making a meal of the garden. funny, because there's so much else to eat in summer, it seems unfortunate to eat our flowers. Discouraging, especially for Lise, to see all her hard work eaten. Not sure we'll see a single daylily this year.

Did a huge amount of editing today...still haven't fixed the problem. Actually, I have edited out the problem...but haven't found a solution. Am hoping for a miracle, or perhaps a direct lightning strike.

Have eleven more pages to go. Will finish tomorrow...I hope! Then get to a bunch of things piling up that need to be done before Wednesday.

If you're in the Toronto, Kingston, Peterborough area, come by the Lakefield Literary Festival next weekend...it's just outside Peterborough, Ontario. I have a 2pm panel discussion. To be honest, I've forgetten who else is on the panel - but I'm sure they're much more interesting than me. Hope so!

Have a Thursday interview in Montreal with Hannah, the host of the CBC Summer book club - then driving to Peterborough Friday. Hope to get to the Musee d'art contemporaine (or MAC) in Montreal on Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning. I hear they have a terrific exhibition on native art.

I don't know if I'm editing this too fast. the advantage is that I see very clearly where the repetitions are, where the holes are...but I might not be actually enjoying the writing, and appreciating where the 'art' works and where it doesn't. But maybe that's for the next edit, which I plan to start as soon as I return from the Lakefield festival.

Time to think about dinner. There's broccoli up in the vegetable garden already! Will go out and harvest some for dinner.

Talk tomorrow.

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