THE REVIEW

ME AND THE MEN AND A BLUEBERRY FLAN


Unfortunately, Margaret was not well, and Gemma couldn’t attend, and Anne Berrie was absent, so there were just me and four men here at the meeting last Wednesday. And none of them refused the blueberry flan I had made, sans sucre.

Jim read first, part of Chapter 10 in his novel “Coventry Ghosts”. This is where Leanne is able to bring her sister, Olivia, into her ghostly world, while time stands still in the real world. Leanne has become a most powerful ghost. There is going to be a General Dissembly to choose new members for the previously decimated Ghostly Committee, and Leanne wants to see women appointed this time. This is a really fun read.

Ron attended for the first time in many months. He read Chapter 5 from his “Of Stalwart Peasants”. This chapter is from the point of view of Burkholder, the Land Agent, looking to sell Hungarian peasants on emigration to Canada. Joseph is one in the crowd, and asks a lot of questions. The Agent reads a bulletin, a glowing testimonial from previous immigrants in the Hungarian colony at Esterhazy. Joseph pays the fee for the Agent to obtain visas for all his family to emigrate, but questions the ability of the Agent to obtain them for his sons, who are of the age for military conscription. A lot of interesting history here.

Jason read Chapter 13, where Greg and Dave are at home. We learn Greg knows about a party that Dave hasn’t told him about, and that Greg is having trouble discerning what was real and what was illusion earlier in the day. Dave admits to Greg that he’s desperately hoping to be picked up by one of the professional scouts that will be at his hockey game on Friday, so that he can leave town for good. Then Jason told us he might scrap this chapter because he didn’t think there was anything happening to move the story along.

The only writing I had done was a letter to the editor that was published in The Vancouver Sun on Wednesday. I commented that I was one who had complained the last time about the long form census, as I have lived in the same house since 1994, and we received the long form every single time it came around. It just seemed to be a little redundant collecting the same info from the same people in the same house every time.

Bob didn’t read anything, but he is still waiting for his new stove, so maybe we will have another story from him on that topic eventually. He has been without a stove for several weeks now.

Big thanks to Jim for the large bowl of ripe plums he brought from the tree in his yard. I’ve been nibbling on them since.

Next Meeting will be here at my place on Wednesday, August 4th at 7:00 p.m. Hope to see you then, and may your inspired thoughts bear the fruit of eloquent composition in the meantime. If not, make jam.

Lisa