Meeting with the publisher

Today it poured from early morning to about 5PM. I met with hopefully my future publisher at Good Food Emporium to discuss editing options. I was not impressed that my 20 months old wasn't feeling well and thus she spent the last 30 minutes of the meeting trying to pull my shirt up. Apparently spilling milk and crumbling cookies wasn't entertaining enough for her. I was, however, very impressed with the publisher, who maintained his composure. I was also impressed with myself--nursing in public doesn't phase me out anymore.



Because of the rain I took a cab both ways, and consequently didn't have enough cash for the baby sitter. Luckily she lives next door and I can easily drop by tomorrow for the rest of her fee.



When I came home, we saw the most amazing rainbow out of our window--bright, wide, and huge.

Halifax Forest Fire

There's major forest fire about 5km from us (my estimate). On the news they name the Hering Cove area, which is our general area, but we're too far from the fire to be evacuated, thanks goodness. I saw the billows of smoke as I was returning home from downtown. When I got out of the cab in front of our house, my daughter ran to me to tell me she'd been taking pictures from our backyard. (Does it look like an elephant with teddy bear's ears or like a tail-less puppy eating a bone? There was a mini debate in our household.)

Three hours ago dark clouds of smoke were still overwhelmingly huge, but right now, even if I can still see the glow of the fire from my back porch, it appears to be more under control. I feel terrible for those who have lost everything. What would I be grabbing while running out of the house? Kids' favourite toys, Russian books, my laptop, my slings. Cloth diapers. I remember reading somewhere about a mom who had a fire in her dryer and she still kept on trying to save her cloth diapers. She said no one could relate. I sure can. How come we manage to attach so much sentimental value to cloth diapers? I have no idea.

Earlier today I called my neighbour, an elderly, sweet know-it-all. "Evacuation?" she laughed. "No dear, we are not being evacuated. I've lived here for thirty years and we've never been evacuated. And even if we were, I would've been knocking on your door by now." Good to know. As usual I was absent minded and didn't even have my radio on. I'd totally miss something like an evacuation.

Thank you to those who called and offered to stay with them in the case of evacuation. You've warmed my heart. Thank you. Thank you.

Notes:

More photos here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcel_t/3488986289/in/photostream/

http://twitpic.com/4agdl

Row around the world

Today on the bus I met Sergei Morozov, a Russian navigator who currently lives in Halifax, who wants to row around the world. Now, that's inspirational!

He sat across from me. Sometimes we, "Russians" (i.e. former Soviet citizens), sense each other. There's something unidentifiable, ephemeral--in the eyes, or in the posture. I sensed he was one of "us," but wasn't certain until I heard him speak on his cellphone. I said hello, we talked for a few minutes. Just before I got off he gave me his card with a link to his web site.

A young man next to us asked if we were speaking German or Russian. Russian, I replied. He was close. I'm surprised how many people here think I speak French after hearing me speak Russian.

In conversation I got disoriented and almost missed my stop.

I'm humbled and inspired by this project. A writer can't afford much, but half of my Descant honorarium is going towards Sergei's project.

Now Halifax has everything I need

The store Olha's Ukrainian Foods offers less selection than the stores in Toronto, but satisfies my cravings just fine. I still call this "Russian food," out of habit, but the point is the same--this is the food of childhood celebrations. Food available (sometimes, if we were lucky) for New Year's Eve, or someone's birthday. Pickled red tomatoes, vegetable spreads, "syrki" (I introduce them as mini chocolate covered cheesecakes, only better, to my Canadian friends), zefir (like marshmallows, only better, way better)...Ah...I just ate way too much of good stuff.