Back in the city, much gardening to do on a hot day – amazing how fast things grow, and not just good things. So much invasion going on, bugs chewing, vines and weeds choking. Wish there were a lake to plunge into. But home is home.

Four days in Ruth’s paradise felt like a week. We three have much to talk about and all helped in the kitchen; we ate so well – I brought a peach crumble, Ruth made a peach cobbler, Annie made a chocolate cake with icing. I gained a kilo.

We watched the lovely Bill Nighy film About Time – charming, imaginative, loved it. Since I am reading Sense and Sensibility, we watched the Emma Thompson version again – so so good, everything, everyone, including a hilarious Harriet Walter as the villain. We also watched the new Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightley of the jutting jaw as an unlikely Elizabeth Bennett and Judy Dench as a surprisingly unconvincing Lady Catherine de Bourgh, but still, it had some good stuff. That woman sure could write. The plots – will they or won’t they, suspense until the last minute – the plot of every successful sitcom, yet written three hundred years ago.

We also watched the first episode of Painkiller, about the Sacklers and Oxycontin – horrible, brutal, one episode was more than enough. Not recommended. Time at a cottage – could not be recommended more highly. One morning, when I got up, Ruth was listening to the news: wildfires, war, return of Covid, Trump. Went outside and stood by the lake, surrounded by silent elegance of trees. Sanity.

Beautiful downtown Muskoka.

My screensaver today.

On more good news: Midlife Solo is proofed, am waiting to see a cover image and move forward. Stay tuned.

My grandboys are still in Nova Scotia with Holly. We’ve now resolved we need to go there every summer, good for everyone – I’ll go next time too. Yesterday, I got to spend the afternoon with my daughter, without her appendages, for the first time in many years. We shopped for a dress for her to wear to a family wedding, had lunch, and went – of course – to see Barbie. What fun! Absurd, hilarious, pulls you in to this topsy-turvy pink world and you go along with the flow. Of course, a powerful feminist message about the plight of women in the world, but also the plight of men – the Ken men. Not deep, but extremely entertaining.

At one point, a character – Ruth Handler, the inventor of the doll – says something like, Mothers stay in place so their daughters can see how far they’ve come. I was sitting beside my beloved daughter. A tear.

So – summer winding down. Tomatoes, peaches, corn, chard, cukes. Lucky us. Lucky lucky lucky us.