things are fall-ing into place

It’s a lovely autumnal day here in la belle province. Orange and red leaves rustle as I walk the sidewalks and the air is crisp and clean. My scarf still retains a slight odour of campfire from spending the long weekend camping with family and I look forward to the first day a house in my neighbourhood lights their fireplace and the infuses the air around me with wood smoke. Something at a very primal level in our brain loves a fire, I’m convinced, in a way that an appreciation for electricity has never had time to evolve.

My first week or so here has gone very well. I’ve been able to spend lots of time with Sh. just as we had hoped to be able to when living several hours’ travel away from each other. We’ve already made blueberry jam (about nine litres so far!) along with Lauren and Freida and just generally both settled in. (I brought her shelves when I came, and she’s spent plenty of time arranging her multifarious art supplies and books on them.) I also happily discovered when signing up for a health card that prescription drugs are covered under a provincial insurance plan here in Québec, and enrolled in some classes, as, embarrassingly, I know little French beyond what I’ve gleaned from bilingual packaging. Tonight I’m attending a potluck dinner with some friends, after fighting down the urge to stay home and watch the third debate between Bush & Kerry live instead. I’ll settle for watching a recording when I get home. It’s a bad time to be a chronic news junkie.

I’m off to do a little work, then track down a source of whole wheat phyllo pastry for tonight’s dessert. Wish me luck.

Update: I’m not the only one who thinks this upcoming presidential election is too important to be left to US citizens. The Guardian is running a campaign to have their readers outside the US write to a voter in Ohio, and donate funds to the NAACP’s black voter registration work. Writers of the best four letters will be flown with a group of reporters to the swing state in the final days of the campaign to meet voters, and, presumably, try to talk sense to them.