Dear Friends

We've already had a considerable amount of snow, so you may be wondering why the background picture is of a sunny day. Partly it's because I like the photo, but mostly it's because I think in this winter of our discontent memories of glorious summer are particularly welcome and useful.  Our provincial government has gone on the attack against--well, against almost everything that made this an unusually good place to live.  In the name of fiscal rigor they've changed the rules concerning  child care programs;  called on teachers, doctors and nurses to work more, and are rejigging the health care system to concentrate power in the hands of medical bureaucrats.  At the same time they continue to tout a billion dollar cement plant project on the Gaspé peninsula whose product may be barred from sale in the US, and plan to go ahead with the Plan Nord, an environmentally questionable development of mineral resources in Northern Quebec that nobody may want to buy.

And that's not saying anything about Stephen Harper's Federal government, or the terrible humanitarian crisis in Syria, or the spectre of a new Cold War with Russia, or...

You get the idea: we need to spend a little time thinking about what's good if we're going to make it through the winter.  So let us return to the longest day in the year which we spent in Paris, picnicking in the Bois de Vincennes with friends.   Beautiful weather with lots and lots of  happy folks enjoying one of the loveliest urban spaces going: good memories are made of things like that!

And to continue concentrating on the positive: after spending two weeks in Paris we went on to Portugal.  As you may remember, I've been a fan of Lusofones for some time, and really enjoyed the research trip I took to Lisbon a few years ago.  Lee had never seen the country and doesn't speak Portuguese, though, so to some extent he was at my mercy.  We had a very interesting time, with much walking and good wine.  Perhaps the high point of the visit was a side trip to Conímbriga, a Roman town that dates from between 100 BCE to about 400 CE and is located half way between Lisbon and Porto.  The ruins have been extensively excavated, giving a picture of what life was like in town in the far reaches of the Roman empire.  Beautiful mosaic floors, ancient walls and the whisper of worlds now vanished.

Other good things:  the grandkids are a continual pleasure. Thomas is now two, and Jeanne is four which makes for a lot of action.  He has been spending most Sundays with us while Lukas and Sophie prepare for the week ahead (she teaches French immersion first grade at Riverview School in Verdun and Lukas is in the final throes of  writing his Ph.D. on Nietzche.) 

Jeanne comes over frequently on Saturdays, particularly when Elin (who's now working full time in the development office of McGill's music school as well as doing some performing) teaches viola da gamba here.  The cousins get on very well: one of the advantages of being in good day care is that children learn to share and play together at an early age.  As I write this, we're looking forward eagerly to this late afternoon/evening when everyone will be here to put up the Christmas
tree and eat supper together.

Lee has had a chance to work quite a bit in his workshop, making sawdust.   He finished the bedstead which I mentioned last year, and has just put the finishing touches on his most recent--and I think loveliest--in a series of benches.  It's made from butternut and is clearly inspired by Gothic architecture, which he loves as much as his loves woodworking. (The photo of Chartres is one he took this summer.)   On a more prosaic note, he and our friend Alan Hammaker replaced a portion of our back fence which had never been touched in the 37 years we've lived in this house.  About time, you might say, and you'd be right!

I had one absolutely wonderful thing happen: cataract surgery on both my eyes.  The doc was able to put in  corrective lenses that now give me nearly perfect vision for the first time in my life. First memo to older friends: don't be afraid of the procedure.  But I also had shingles which I'd always thought was a joke, but isn't.   Second memo to older friends: investigate getting the anti-shingles vaccine because you don't want to get the disease. As for writing: my novel River Music was supposed to be published by Cormorant Books in the fall, but it looks like mid-March before it will appear.  And I continue to work on Road through Time, the non-fiction book about roads as vectors for change and exchange. 

So, all in all, it was a pretty good year on a personal level.  Hope it was for you too.  Please send us your news: we always like to get End of Year letters.  They get a lot of bad press as does Facebook, but without them keeping friendships alive would be a lot harder.

Best wishes. Beijinhos. Bien à vous.

Mary