For days I’ve been working on a new short story called How to Seduce a Feminist [or Not].  I hope I can finish the rough draft tomorrow or on the weekend. Of course I’ve been writing poems too, finally not all about the weather. I started my first and second batch of seeds:  the first being various peppers bell, frying, hot; the second batch was composed of  red cabbage, pac choi, salad bowl lettuce, cilantro, broccoli, curly and Italian parsley. Salad bowl is not one of the best lettuces by far but it grows quickly and can be transplanted into the garden for our first and earliest salads of spring. The recent storms have been all rain here and most – 90% even – of the snow is gone.  The birds are very active, I have my first crocuses in bloom and also the chinese witchhazel at the foot of the drive came into bloom today.  I can feel spring approaching, even though I am sure we will have more snow. But by this time, it doesn’t stay as long.  I hope we can prune the fruit trees and bush fruits this weekend and unmulch the rhubarb so it starts growing. I began knee rehab today.  I will not have a knee operation.  I have researched them thoroughly and aside from my general impression of hospitals as very dangerous places, they don’t work as well for women as they do for men.  I hurt both knees in a gym accident over a decade ago when I was the first person to use the treadmill in a rundown gym after a night thunderstorm.  The treadmill went from low to maximum almost at once, threw me across the gym and took the gym off both my knees.  I was in excruciating pain. After a couple of years, I discovered a great acupuncturist who kept me mobile until three years ago when she moved her practice to Florida.  Since then I have tried five acupuncturists with mostly no results except for one who actually hurt me.  I have one I can use for some amelioration who is the best of the lot, but it’s time to try another route. From the time I was a kid, I walked long distances, loved walking as my favorite form of exercise and loved exploring. I walked all over San Francisco, I used to walk home to the upper West Side of Manhattan from 34^th St., I’ve crossed Paris on foot.  One of the reasons I love living on the Cape has always been the wonderful walks that are available here.  I have not been able to walk even half a mile in the last three years.  My goal is simple. I don’t expect to be able to walk ten miles again, but I would like to be able to walk a couple of miles.  Even a mile and a half would be a great delight.  That is my rehab goal. This weekend, I hope we can get out into the garden and prune and start uncovering the myriad perennial beds.  I see green outside and that excites me. For city people, spring comes when it’s warm outside.  For us, spring comes when ice is off the ponds and when we can get into the gardens to begin and when I begin starting seeds inside.  This morning three of the sixpacks were sprouted and Woody took them out to our tiny greenhouse – they’re hardy.  We’ll turn on the heater at night.  We took it out from the house yesterday.  I am one of those people who loves spring, gets excited by it every year. Wants to celebrate it by getting outside, ending the cabin fever that always lands on us in February.