Rain is coming down in stair-rods today, inconvenient but welcome because it's washing a powerful whiff of freshly spread manure out of the air. Monday is Victoria Day, which means this weekend will bring the summer's first major wave of tourists and theatre-goers. So easy downtown parking is over until the middle of October.

As of this morning, I'm down 4.5 Kg and a size in trousers. The property is tidier than it has been since Edmund died, thanks to the garden services company I signed up with in March. I am most delighted that their crew cleared away all the deadfall maple branches, including the great stack -- three winters' worth -- I had piled up behind the woodshed. In the house, I have made a tentative arrangement to be rid of the queen-sized metal-framed bedstead that is too big for either bedroom in this house, and to replace it with a Mission-style twin bedstead (currently stashed in the basement) that will do me fine for the foreseeable future.