Wine, Women and Song!

September 2003 is when we Book Babes had our inaugural meeting.  That's a lot of years, and a lot of books!

Nicki has been hosting the Book Babes AGM at her Haliburton hide-away over a May weekend for the last few years.

It may be  one of the reasons our book club has lasted as long as it has...  that, and the way we choose our books.

We've made it our tradition to pick our books for the coming year, with everyone presenting three possibilities and then voting for their pick of the three.  Very democratic.  The books not chosen end up on the 'b' list. ... which is now looking so good I have a list of 30 books to read instead of 10.

Such a beautiful spot.  The woods were dotted with pink trilliums for our visit, the foam flowers were foaming, and the turtles were soaking up the rain.

Virginia, brave soul, went for a swim in the freezing lake.  There she is, waving, in the photo above.

Saturday morning I saw a flash of red blinking on a branch and couldn't figure out what it was. Don't humming birds hover?  This one sat for quite some time, and in the distance I would see the crimson flash as the tiny creature swiveled its head.  I didn't believe rubies were perching birds, but when Nicki grabbed the binoculars it was confirmed.  Definitely, yes!  That ruby throat.  How could I have doubted?

Saturday night Tim (Nicki's husband) dedicated a song to the Book Babes on his radio show - 'You Give Me Fever', and then to Judi from Minden with an 'i'.  What fun.

Site of the famous AGM

The food all weekend was delicious, of course!  And in great abundance.  A tasty discovery happened when pineapple, roasted asparagus & Saint Auger cheese accidentally combined over the invisible 'border-half' of the pizza.  Would never put those flavours together but they were fabulous on the oil-brushed, thin crust. 

Great wine.  Merlot Lohr and cab sav Liberty School make the list to try again.

Books this year that made the 'A list' are:

• My Life In France / Julia Child & Alex Prudomme
• Wolf Hall / Hilary Mantel
• Started Early-Took My Dog / Kate Atkinson
• The Art of Choosing  / Sheena Iyengar  
• Bride of New France  / Suzanne Desrochers  
• Luncheon of the Boating Party / Susan Vreeland 
• My Stroke of Insight  / Jill Bolte Taylor
• At Home- A Short History of Private Life  / Bill Bryson
• Running North- A Yukon Adventure / Ann Mariah Cook 
• Complications:A Surgeon's notes on an Imperfect Science / Atul Gawande