This will get me through an English winter

My favorite things about the cottage: big skies, eating every meal on the deck overlooking the water, and toasting heavenly sunsets with wine.





We had fifteen people at dinner one night in Quebec. Being immersed in extended family after close to ten years is really strange. So much has changed, so little has changed. My inner socially awkward teenager always emerges in spite of a decade of adulthood. But it was a great holiday, with lots of swimming, biking, canoeing, and fresh local food, in one of my favorite places on earth. It was wonderful to see everyone, and I feel grounded again now.

(It's surreal to start a new life among total strangers who don't have any reference points about me. I am coming across bland as white bread in my attempts to get along with everyone. I need someone to really tick me off so I can be the surly, cynical and slightly arrogant person inside the deceptively affable exterior. British Gas is coming pretty close. After six months they still can't find our account and have yet to bill us for electricity. The collapse of the Empire suddenly seems a bit more understandable.)