My workshop is full, all the deposits are in so this week we’ll start sending out packets of information.  My friend Jose with whom I have been working on the WOMR poetry contest has had a setback in his cancer – an operation didn’t work and they couldn’t get out all they found.  So I am worried about him and don’t know where the poems I’m to judge are now.We had drought this summer and fall, but I think the water table has probably recovered with all the rain and some snow we’ve had so far this winter.  Usually we have a fair amount of sun in the winter here. I remember moving to Boston from the Midwest  in 1962, I was astonished how sunny it was.  I was used to a grey cloud cover from the end of October through April.  This has been a grey winter mostly but I know the land needs water to recover.Yesterday I left the house for the first time since my surgery.  Woody and I drove to Hyannis to buy catfood at Petsmart and then to Trader Joe’s. It was one of those days of full sun and everything was astonishingly beautiful to me.  I was delighted to be doing a normal activity, but by the time we got home, I was totally exhausted.  When you haven’t been out of the house in 5 and a half weeks, everything is wondrous – the light, the trees, observing a house that a woods had rendered invisible in summer. this morning I watched a downy woodpecker for half an hour – a handsome guy working on one of our trees.This week I go back to Beth Israel for a follow-up appointment. I am fervently hoping they clear me to take baths again, as I hate showering.  My back has begun to bother me from the exercises and being somewhat lopsided with the cane.  I’ll see my chiro Tuesday and see what she can do without upsetting my cyborg knee.I’ve been doing more cooking – cooked the whole supper last night of salmon, leeks and ravioli.  I was very tired and a bit crabby but I did it.  Every day I try to do more of what I normally do.  This week I did write one poem, but mostly it was catching up on everything that accumulated – paying bills, dealing with American Express because someone attempted to use my credit card number to buy something on line, balancing checkbooks, ordering seeds.  I have been working on plant orders all week. I am full of hope to get back in the garden this spring.  I did my share last spring but by the first week in August, I could do almost nothing. I couldn’t even walk down the drive to the lower garden. Every step was agony. I couldn't kneel or squat, so harvesting was beyond me.There’s no snow on the ground now, but I fear that won’t last.  This mild spell is supposed to end well before Wednesday,  When we go into Beth Israel in Boston, it’s supposed to be frigid and probably there’ll be snow on the ground, if not still falling.  But you understand how eager I am to see how they feel I’m doing and what restrictions on my activities they’ll finally lift.  One good thing is how much time I’ve had to read – all those periods of icing and sitting with my feet propped up in the air, upended in bed.  I watched a fair amount of TV the first 2 weeks but little since.  Of course I’ll watch the AFC championship on Sunday.  I am hopeful for the Pats, but not truly optimistic.  So many injuries.  Every time some player goes down with a knee injury, I truly empathize.