Author: cpgrisold

I am aware of her awareness
Her knowledge, her acceptance
Of finiteness
Of the sun that penetrates
Black, white
And my pink skin…

She rests her head on cool brown earth
I, mine, on prickly verdant lawn
With one hand on her back; we exist
Together, breathing in the Autumn
Ingesting the sounds
Of birds and traffic

In the unseasonable warmth.
She looks at me through lazy, longing eyes
I sigh, and through her eyes imagine
Taking final sighs, final glances

Of a cat in a garden
And I by her side
Meaningless in history
Yet everything in hers.

~ c.p.grisold

This Wednesday October 5th, Coach House Books is taking over The Dance Cave (529 Bloor Street West, above Lee’s Palace) for their big Toronto group launch.

From their newsletter:

So dust off those dancing shoes and free up some bookshelf space! You’re going to need both.

You can expect amazing readings from all six of our fall authors – Sina Queyras (Autobiography of Childhood), Tristan Hughes (Eye Lake), Rob Benvie (Maintenance), David McGimspey (Li’l Bastard), Leigh Kotsilidis (Hypotheticals) and Jenny Sampirisi (Croak) – a mini photo booth on hand and all of Coach House’s new fall titles at sale prices.

We’re also taking requests for music, so please post your requests on the Facebook page with the song you’ve been dying to hear at a book launch. We’re holding a draw at the launch: one lucky song requester will win a Kobo Touch eReader. Not only do you get to hear your favourite song, you could win fabulous prizes!

Sounds like funtimes! Coach House throws the BEST parties.

Read on; rock on.

x

[For Weekly Digest #1, click here.]

Not sure if this is actually going to cover a week, or less, or more. But I have been quite hectic lately and haven’t had the time to blog properly. I am working on a review of Gone with the Windsors by Laurie Graham, that I will probably post next week. This is because tomorrow and Friday I will be attending the 2nd annual ShesConnected.com Conference as one of their Top 200 Influential Digital Women in Canada. Yay me! And then, filling the role of jetsetter for a weekend, I will be hopping on a Porter flight to Ottawa immediately thereafter to spend the weekend with some emigrant friends – one of whom is my thirstybeaver.ca co-founder – and whom I will be featured with in the October issue of TAPS Magazine as their Beer Enthusiast(s)! Yay us!

Last weekend was another faboo iYellow Wine Club tour to Niagara-on-the-Lake, plus a 2hr kayak tour down the Humber with Toronto Adventures. I am desperate to spend a weekend at Old Mill Inn & Spa with my Momsies this winter, pretending we are in England.

I got an incredible new day job that I’m sure I will write more about later. All I’m gonna say now is it’s for a magazine, and I can’t wait to get started!

Was invited to the Diet Coke tiff. Gala by the fizzing refresher itself, but alas I was unable to attend. I hear it was pretty great, with Diet Coke cocktails and a TONNE of amazing bloggers.

Also won tickets to the Geminis from tweeting with @Strombo but AGAIN was unable to attend. Watched them from home instead. Not as cool. Although, it was an honour just to be invited. *cymbal crash*

Oh, and I have found the ultimate most delicious sausage of all-time: Rowe Farms “French Country” made with cinnamon, tarragon, nutmeg… the spices of Autumn. I made it tonight with roastie root veg, and it was good. (Drank a glass of Coppola 2009 Chardonnay avec ça.)

My brother and his wife entered their adorable baby (otherwise known as my nephew E) into an adorable baby contest at the Milton Fall Fair. He placed second overall! Yay him! (Gone are the days when we used to go to the Fall Fair to drink underage, and throw up on the Gravitron! Mem’ries!)

I attended a Young Women of Influence Evening Series speaker event last Thursday with DEALUXE CEO Joanna Track that was really motivating – and a great event to boot. If you’ve never attended one of these events, do so immediately. You will LOVE it.

Umm… Bath & Body Works is having a 2-for-$25 sale on their large candles. This is a great deal considering they are normally about $30 each. I got a cute brown one with silver birch logs on it (my 2nd fav tree, next to the Weeping Willow) called “Fireside” and one surprise candle for my Momsies that I cannot reveal the scent of here since she’ll be getting it on Saturday. Oh well I guess if she reads this she will know her surprise gift is a candle! Did not think this through, clearly.

Travelzoo is having a sweet sale on a getaway to St. Anne’s that I am contemplating in lieu of the Old Mill weekend.

My foster cat, New Kitty (a.k.a. Holly) is getting along better than ever. Still scared of most things, she’s coming out of her shell slowly. Her personal ad is posted on AbbeyCats.org, looking for a Forever Home. They told me she’s probably the one cat that’s been in their system the longest. Sad. No one ever wants the black & white ones.

Let’s cancel out those tragic images with a good one: I’m going to Stillwater Spa in the Park Hyatt next Friday for a 90-minute Swedish massage. Yay, benefit plan!

What’s the opposite of Spring cleaning? Autumnal fulfilling? :o) Melikes.

Welcome to Fall. The best season of them all.

x

Turn your speakers up for this one! Yay!

Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me;
Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see
A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the tingling strings
And pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as she sings.

In spite of myself, the insidious master of song
Betrays me back, till the heart of me weeps to belong
To the old Sunday evenings at home, with winter outside
And hymns in the cozy parlour, the tinkling piano our guide.

So now it is vain for the singer to burst into clamour
With the great black piano appassionato. The glamour
Of childish days is upon me, my manhood is cast
Down in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past.

~ Piano by D.H. Lawerence