July 2010

BC Book Prize Auction

I received a request from BC Book Prize to put a link to their auction on my website, so here it is. I went to the site myself and there are a lot of great things to bid on and in doing so you will be helping support and promote writers and illustrators in BC. Not only that, but the BC Book Prize group also tour authors and illustrators around BC to schools that otherwise might not have had the funds or opportunity to have a real live author or artist visit their school. AND every year BC Book Prize finds local sponsors who make massive donations to buy books for the school libraries in BC. Which is a godsend, since funding for our libraries over the last few years has been whittled down to a pittance.

So, if you are feeling flush and you have your 8 month emergency fund socked away, and you have topped up your RRSP as well as invested in your TFS, and you have a little spare cash rattling around in your pocket and feel like doing a good deed, check out the auction and see if there is anything that grabs your fancy.

Posted by Meg Tilly on Tuesday, July 20, 2010 in Chewing the Fat

For all of you who voted for my sister…

I wanted to let you know that I just found out that she won the very prestigious the Bellagio 5k tournament and made 124 thousand dollars! Yay Jennifer! And I bet if she got into that stupid Tournament of so-called champions, she would have won that as well!

Posted by Meg Tilly on Sunday, July 18, 2010 in Chewing the Fat

Jasmin John-Thorpe

Don figured out what the problem was. The photo was too big for me to upload, so the thing kept blanking out. Not to worry. Don worked his magic and so here it is! (The beautiful top I am wearing courtesy of my fabulous, fashionable sister, Jennifer, of course!)

Posted by Meg Tilly on Saturday, July 17, 2010 in Chewing the Fat

Summer

Hello everyone,

If you are enjoying your summer even half as much as I am enjoying mine, you must be having great summer! Will is home and Dave is dropping by all the time and when his lovely fiance Amy is in town, I get the pleasure of both of their smiling faces. Chats with Emily on the phone. Life is good.

I love our new/old home. Never going to move. Am done. That’s it. Finished. Ah… Bliss!

ALSO another thing that has me dancing is that is is summer fruit time! So exciting. I’ve been making weekly visits to the local farms and have been gorging. The strawberries this year seem especially inspired. Tiny, tender morsels that bruise easily, don’t last long so you have to eat them up quick. Remind me of the taste of the wild strawberry patch my sisters and I discovered when we were young. Full of flavor and so sweet, dissolve in the mouth succulent perfection that makes me feel so happy and grateful to be alive and able to afford such a tasty treat.

Driving back from the farms the car loaded up, warm summer days with a cool breeze tingling the skin, the inside of the car filled with the mingling smells of summer fruit, my husband beside me. What could be better?

I’ve also bought some blueberries, although they are a tiny bit tart still, not quite where they need to be but good enough to nosh on a handful or two a day and certainly good enough for freezing. Hopefully in another week or two they will get to that super sweet, taut stage that is blueberry perfection.

The peaches and nectarines are a little disappointing, not much flavor, a slight bitter tang and not the right texture. Don’t know if they will step into their own later on in the summer or if they are a wash this season.

The raspberries are good. Not enough to send me into raptures, but perfectly fine, as are the cherries.

I’m having a great summer. Went to the B.C. Youth Write Camp in Pentiction. Yasmin John-Thorpe is the founder/organizer. A woman with a huge heart. I seriously don’t know how she and her hearty band of volunteers manage to pull this off year after year, donating zillions of hours of their time, stretching a very limited budget to give these kids and teens this experience. I had a great time. The teens wrote their hearts out. Some serious talent in that group. Blew me away.

Here’s a picture of me with the wonder woman that my friend kc dyer emailed me along with this wonderful sentence which I am holding to my heart like Dumbo’s feather. “Sending you summer writing karma on the backs of blue dragonflys….!“ Seems to be working.

Oops! Been so long since I’ve uploaded a picture, I’ve forgotten how to do it. I thought I did all the correct steps, but nothing uploaded, so I’ll have to wait until my husband gets off-line. He is doing his weekly writers group meeting with Ken and James. James has written an enormous manuscript so I imagine Don will be a while, but I’ll have him re-teach me how to post this picture when he’s done.

Bye for now.