Dear Reader:

I am close to the ending of The Madness of Crowds ( Louise Penny) and I am falling back on my usual unique reading habit -slowing down and only allowing myself so many chapters a day! I don’t want the mystery to end… and to have to say goodbye to Gamache and all my friends for another year. Yet… I really want to know if my guess at ” who dunnit” is right! Sweet agony!

In Penny’s first mystery novel –Still Life-she wrote ” In the bedroom Clara picked up the well-worn book beside Jane’s bed, C. S Lewis’ s Surprised by Joy. It smelled of Floris.”

Originally the phrase first came from a sonnet ” Surprised by Joy-Impatient as the Wind” written by William Wordsworth in the wake of his three-year-old daughter’s death.”

At face value, a strange comparison -joy and death-but the world of Three Pines, as summed up by both readers and reviewers alike, is just that, a place where light contrasts dark, goodness exists with evil, innocence engages experience, and hope flourishes with fear.

Louise Penny admits that she was ” surprised by joy” with a miracle-sobriety.

…”To find happiness and the freedom that comes from not having to drink every day and finding friends, and finding myself, and finding real joy.”

Louise also had a bench made and adorned with a ” Surprised by Joy” in 2007 for her husband Michael’s birthday. ” When I met and fell in love with him I was, indeed, surprised with joy. He was the most joyous person I’d ever met.”

Sadly Michael passed away a few years back. Penny had a rendition of the plaque made to be placed on a bench in New York’s Central Park. The bench sits on an idyllic hill and faces Louise’s apartment.

So until tomorrow …shouldn’t we all surround ourselves with friends and beauty that bring us joy… even surprise us with it!

” Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh

Surprised by all the beauty in my September garden

Kaitlyn is temporarily keeping a precious little dog named Chicken. She was abandoned in Columbia with a KFC note tied to her that she like to eat chicken.

Kaitlyn says she likes all food, potty trained, loves children and other pets! She needs and deserves a loving home. If interested in knowing more… Email [email protected]