~making créme à sucre (or is that sucre à créme?)
for the Sunday pancakes ~

1:46 p.m.

I am reading Villa Air-Bel, by Rosemary Sullivan. It is about a group of young people in France in the 1930s who cared for and helped artists and intellectuals trying to escape the governments of various European countries, and the Nazi and Fascist collaborators who were after them. Sullivan has been describing the politics, the propaganda, and the military action of the times leading up to the Second World War. It is disheartening and frightening to read. God, we’re a stupid species.

This may not be the best thing for me to immerse myself in at this time. I need a lift, not a dive, after waking up in a bad mood for some reason. Could have something to do with sleeping on the floor in this crowded office. Had to move upstairs away from the dampness in the basement, where there is still water coming in.

I must remember to focus on the people who used their brains and practised selfless courage, and not on the cruel and foolish ones who supported the government/dictatorship-sanctioned murder that went on on such a grand scale. And to know that this kind of thing still exists in the world today … I want to go stick my head in some sand.

Temptingly, on my desk is Self-made Man, by Norah Vincent, about her 18-month journey into manhood. She went undercover into the world of males and then wrote a book about it. I am looking forward to reading it but trying to make myself stick with Villa Air-Bel for now. What I probably need today, instead, is a good escapist murder mystery.

We are off to a concert in a half-hour or so. Everett is vacuuming. Emil is shaving. Scott's out tagging newborn calves. I'm watching a big batch of granola in the oven. The sun is shining and we've put the screens in the windows and opened them to let the fresh air in.

We were out to a delicious meal and visit at our friends' place last night, and were all yawning by 9:30 so I said "Let's go home." Hated to leave, as it isn't often enough that we get together with Faye and Rick, but this way we weren't driving half-asleep over roads where one really needs to be alert to watch for deer.

NP: vacuum cleaner

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