Believe it or not, I am cold! I'm in a cottage on a pond in Maine (they call lakes ponds here, like "On Golden Pond") and it's lovely, though I'm not sure what to call it. When I lived in Winnipeg, we called a summer home a cottage. It was usually quite a modest place, unless it was on Lake of the Woods (Kenora, Ontario: grand places there, with wrap-around verandas, on private islands with big boathouses sleeping a half dozen or so extra guests). Further east in Ontario, summer homes are called camps; farther north, .they're cabins. I mostly call all such places the lake, unless they're on an ocean, of course, and then I don't know what to say. I have a dear friend who lives on Howe Sound at.Gibson's Landing, and I call it Virginia's place. (Hello, Virginia.)

Anyway, I'm here and I'm cold. What a surprise! I've been so hot in Toronto for the past month that I'd forgotten how not to be hot and I didn't bring warm clothes. Fortunately, my hostess and I are the same size and she will lend me something to wear. Fortunately, also, my hostess is my daughter, bless her.

She is awake now and I'm going to have coffee with her and her husband - by a fire, I think. My battery needs recharging, anyway. Anon, anon...