June 16^th, 2012

Dear family and close friends,

Margot and I enjoy our home and garden in Crescent Beach where we frequently entertain grandchildren Arianne and Xavier and my beautiful daughter Heidi. In early May, we visited Chris, Carol and Cormac in Toronto and managed to spend time with my sisters Louise and Jackie and Louise’s fantastic family. Chris is principal Foods Writer and Restaurant Critic for the Globe and Mail. Thus, no recognizable photo of my one and only son.

In June, we were delighted with a visit from our cousin Christopher and his lovely wife Eva – currently from Botswana en route from their North America tour back to Oxford.

In writing news, I’ve been very busy with various writing organizations: Federation of BC Writers, The Canadian Authors Association and The Writers’ Union of Canada as well as numerous poetry events.

Following extensive professional editing and having fictionalized names and some places, my updated memoir The Chameleon Sings has been published by Libros Libertad who released Blood, Feathers & Holy Men in 2011. The new book is aptly named Secrets Kept / Secrets Told. http://www.bennuttall-smith.ca/BenNuttall-Smith.ca/Secrets_Kept___Secrets_Told.html

The historical novel is at http://www.bennuttall-smith.ca/BenNuttall-Smith.ca/Blood_Feathers_Holy_Men_a_story_of_Quetzalcoatl.html

 Both books are also available in eBook format at http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-eBooks   

My first two poetry books have sold out, however, a third Scribbles from afar is still available. I expect to produce a new collection sometime next year.  http://www.bennuttall-smith.ca/BenNuttall-Smith.ca/Three_Poetry_Books.html

A couple of book readings and some singing with children at a YMCA pre-school event are viewable on Youtube at  http://www.youtube.com/user/BenNuttallSmith/videos

As I approach my 80^th year, I do intend to slow down and enjoy more time and travel with Margot. Plans for a September / October trip are still in the planning stages. Meanwhile, from both of us, love and best wishes to all.

Ben

Grandpa with Arianne & Xavier

Carol guides Cormac on his new bicycle

Christopher pulls weeds

Heidi fixes Arianne's hair

with my two sisters – Louise in blue and Jackie red

with Louise & margot

pleasant walks close to home

Cormac's Lego set

Cousin Christopher and Eva (left) visit Vancouver

Happy Canada Day 2010

Now that school's out, we look forward to more sunshine and happy faces in Crescent Beach.

Yucatan Holiday

Margot and I spent two warm weeks in Mexico. The trip was part holiday, part research for my upcoming historical novel: Blood, Feathers and Holy Men. We visited Teotihuacán – City of the gods, about 25 miles northeast of Mexico City. While in Mexico City we also visited the Museum of Anthropology and, of course, Guadelupe.
Next, we flew to Yucatan where we visited Chichén-Itzá and Tulum, once known as Zama – the City of Dawn.
Finally, we relaxed on a beach at Akumal where I wrote a handful of poems.

Of Daydreams and Seaweed

From bitter memories of snow and ice,
of sleet and fog and rain and traffic screams,
I waken to a beach of golden sand
and breathe deep of the sea's perfume –
honeyed air of the Mayan coast.

Peek-a-boo morning sun rises swiftly
to cross the Caribbean sky.
Now and then it hides
behind fluffy grey-white puffs of cloud –
only to blaze forth, promising the day’s heat.

As far as I can daydream,
I see soothing blue.
Grandma in her sunhat looks for shells.
Fair-skinned toddlers race in the surf.
Bikini maidens chat along the shore.

Stiff breeze sets hats flying across the mottled sand.
Cormorant swoops and dives for breakfast on the waves.
Jogger puffs off last night’s revelry
and ogles topless beauties on the beach,
reminiscing perhaps of loves gone by.

Then, I see them:
As sports fishers troll beyond the reef
and kayaks glide in tandem past snorkeling youth,
the beach's only Mayans rake seaweed into orange barrows.

Arianne and Xavier and Heidi

Photos from Way Back When