Spring update, including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
This has been a long slow spring here in TO — hot one day, chilly and grey the next. But I’m no longer sick, so energy and focus have returned to the land. Kind of.
Sad to say, my U of T class was cancelled because of low registration, although I’m pleased one student got in touch and asked to work with me privately. I sent out a newsletter reminding people I’m happy to work on Zoom, one on one, and edit, coach, cheerlead, whatever is needed. FYI.
On Thursday, I was finally well enough to ride to St. John’s Bakery and buy $70 worth of bread, treats, and coffee. Have to say, their croissant does not compare to a French croissant, which isn’t to say there aren’t superb buttery flakey croissants in Toronto. But the St. John’s sourdough is superb. My grandsons had a sleepover this weekend, and it gave me great pleasure to provide them with slabs of good bread covered with Adam’s peanut butter (one American product I cannot bring myself to give up.)
Local wildlife excitement: while I was away, Carol had to deal with a dead raccoon in the front yard; it had fallen off my roof. She did what I would have done — she called Jean-Marc, who arrived promptly, bagged the body, and labelled it for the city to take away. Then Monique discovered five raccoon kits in her front yard; probably it was their mother who died and they were forced to leave the den. Someone came to take them away. We’re still on the frontier here.
Saturday was Anna’s 44th birthday, and my gift to her was to welcome the boys here for 24 hours, so she could have a party and some time to herself. As you know, they are a hurricane, a whirlwind, sweeping all before them. I managed to keep them fed, busy, and alive. The most recent Mutant Ninja Turtle movie was on Crave and had great reviews, so we watched that, and amazingly, I liked it almost more than they did; it was really good. We finished reading the first Percy Jackson book, and luckily, have four more to go.
At one point, they came into the kitchen and told me to look up at the skylight above the kitchen table. There, stuck to the window, was a note: “I see you. I see you. I am waching you.” It was funny, except it meant they’d been leaning over the skylight to stick the thing in place, risking life and limb, so I was not pleased.
On Sunday we went to Cabbagetown’s Forsythia Festival, where Ben rode a bucking bronco for a whole 22 seconds, a record. I was wearing the white beret I bought many years ago at a second-hand store in Paris, and someone pointed out that the design on it depicts the maze at Chartres Cathedral. I’ve wondered and been asked about the design but have never known what it was. Wiki says the labyrinth was probably laid around 1201. “Although labyrinths can be employed as spiritual tools in countless ways, this one has a distinctly Christian interpretation, one which monks at Chartres used in their contemplation: the labyrinth as a representation and embodiment of the Christian arc from sin to redemption.”
Imagine, I’m wearing all that on my hat!
The boys and I went to a concert of Indigenous music and dancing at Roy Thompson Hall, and then I was able to deliver them back to their mother with limbs intact.
I’m emerging from the up of travel and the down of the flu, back to myself, back to routine. Lists. Getting stuff done. Thank heavens, because there is a great deal to do.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace turns into a circus. Turkish Proverb
I love this: “The purpose of being a serious writer is not to express oneself, and it is not to make something beautiful, though one might do those things anyway. Those things are beside the point. The purpose of being a serious writer is to keep people from despair. If you keep that in mind always, the wish to make something beautiful or smart looks slight and vain in comparison. If people read your work and, as a result, choose life, then you are doing your job.” SARAH MANGUSO
Out of order: Ben and the bronco. Lynn’s party, including the cake reveal – it was a grand piano. Ranunculus I was urged to take home from the party — my favourite flowers. St. John’s Bakery. The Chartres beret.
Our prime minister is headed to Washington to confront the beast. Godspeed.
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