Last time for Bill's pizza...

Well,  we fly home April 8 so a beginning of "lasts" for us….

Mahi Mahi from Trader Joe's

We haven't eaten a lot of maui-mahi as I don't think it's that available at home but I am impressed with the taste and texture.  I grilled up some fillets yesterday and they were excellent and almost like halibut…well,  nothing is quite like halibut.  Jensen's had fresh halibut fillet on sale for $25.95 a pound and that US dollars!  I hope we get a better price at home.

 These were about 8 bucks a pound.

More Louise Penny

Sorry about not being in touch - incredibly long days at the magnificent crime fiction fest - Quai du Polars in Lyon, France. Yesterday I had two events and a signing and two filming - and then there was the eating...dear God! had lunch at the Paul Bocuse bistro, Le Nord. Delicious. Would still be there if they hadn't threatened to call the gendarmerie. Then late in the day hopped the train to paris, changed stations, then the TGV to London. Arrived home to Michael's arms at midnight. Some tears. Happy to be home. Here's a photo from one of the events yesterday with Elizabeth George, Elena Piacentini, me, and Olivier Gay. Incredible to meet some old friends, and writers new to me from all over the world. In Lyon! Ahhhhh -

Mostly I try to avoid politics and venting in my blog but...

I thought this was an excellent article by Stephen Hume today in the Vancouver Sun.

Canada’s bigots grant themselves permission to vent

http://www.vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/Stephen+Hume+Canada+bigots+grant+themselves/10930201/story.html

Perhaps the most handsome cat in the world….

These are photos of Elaine's Oscar.   He was a neighbour cat who has now moved up Island but she still sees him from time to time and Denise,  his mom,  is very good about sending photos.  He provided much comfort to Don and Elaine over many years.

Denise sent them with the subject:  Oscar's Latest Thing

Itty Bitty Book Review: "Old Possums's Book of Practical Cats"

 "Old Possums's Book of  Practical Cats" by T. S Eliot

Well,  can't seem to get an image but I've really enjoyed reading this and the illustrations by Nicolas Bentley.  Great fun.  One of our booksale finds in new condition.

Lunch and books...

We went to Ruben and Ozzy's and we split  this wonderful Mexican Seafood Cocktail and then fish tacos and pasta….Jim got all the pasta,  of course.

And we got a dozen or so books at the sale and Jim really scored with a two volume set of the Oxford English Dictionary for a dollar a volume.  He has a set at home.  This one was missing the magnifying glass but that's an easy fix.

For Louise Penny fans

She posted this on Facebook today…glad she's getting a bit of a break from caregiving.

Ahhh - Lyon. Arrived 2 days ago and haven't stopped! Michael in London, with caregiver and I'm here at the crime fiction festival, Quai du Polar. What a beautiful city - and the trees are in bloom!! The festival is being held here - at the Palais du Commerce....not a bad office, don't you think? Have been eating myself stupid. But what a way to go. And meeting so many wonderful people including my French, Spanish, Quebec and even American publishers. Such an exciting life. Have an event today at 5pm, then two tomorrow, and heading home by Eurostar to London tomorrow night. One of the events tomorrow is in the Musee des Beaux Arts - where they've asked me to choose a masterpiece and talk about it, and art, and creativity as themes in my books. Not bad when the office is also a magnificent museum.

Palm Springs Art Museum

I visited the Art Museum yesterday and nice to see old favourites and new things.  A very interesting exhibit by a Chinese artist,  Hung Liu.  You can't take photos in the current exhibitions so here's a link:

http://www.psmuseum.org/palm-springs/exhibition/summoning-ghosts-art-hung-liu/

There was  video showing her painting technique…quite fascinating for me.   She does very large paintings and stands on a ladder to paint some of them.  It was quite interesting to see a series of very small paintings she had done.  They were small because she needed to hide them since they were pastoral scenes and didn't have political content…necessary in all art in the time she was doing them.  She was born in 1948 and spent four years at a "re-education camp" in China.  She came to the US in 1984.

 I always love seeing the Henry Moore's….they have three of them.

Some cool stuff in the gift shop.

These are new…paintings by Dale Chihuly.  I thought the big glass sculpture was gone but it's now in the sculpture garden.

And some new additions to their wonderful glass collection.

And the paintings of local scenes….one of my favourites.

Sadly,  the "museum visitors" are now penned in.  They used to be just sitting on a bench and usually fooled people (fooled us they were real initially!).  I guess they were being touched too much.  Not quite the same effect the way they are now.

This is the Chihuly that was hung in the main entrance.

Taken from the sculpture garden.  The museum is in such a beautiful setting by the mountains.

And a few photos of the O'Donnell Golf Club.  Jim didn't get playing here this year….now,  it's a bit too hot for golf….well,  for me anyway.  Jim loves the heat.

http://www.odonnellgolfclub.com

Had to take this through a chain link fence.

Itty Bitty Book Review: "My Antonia"

 "My Antonia" by Willa Cather

I hadn't read anything else by Cather except the longish short story "Paul's Case" which I taught since it was in a short story collection for grade 10.  I picked up a copy of this novel at a library sale…where else?    It's a pioneer story and quite wonderful for the story,  the characters,  and the descriptions.  I think I must read more of her work.

A few more photos from my Deepwell photo shoot…I could look at this stuff all day!

I think somebody is trying to create a bit of Tuscany here with the Cypress trees.

I love seeing men on their knees doing housework...

We've cleaned all our vertical blinds now (Jim did most of the work) with the Home Shopping Channel's "Ultimate Cloths".   These are miracle cloths that Fern introduced me to when we were getting ready to sell our Victoria home.  She worked like a trojan and brought these wonderful cloths…just an amazing product for everything!

Link if you want to buy some of these:

http://www.theshoppingchannel.com/Ultimate-Cloth/Cleaning/Ultimate-Cloth-4-Standard-Cloth-Set/pages/productdetails?nav=R:507910,N:128384,E:5344957

Our new pet….

We've been enjoying this gecko and he seems to like lounging on our fountain and listening to the water.