It was a shock to return home. The four feet of snow we had been dealing with had compacted and even a tiny bit of melting had occurred. Now we have seven inches more on top of all that. One of the good things that happened this week was milder weather. One day was absolutely balmy. The ice pack and snow began to melt. Woody began working a little on the upper garden, the Rosa, where he intends to build me raised beds when he can. Even the materials are lost in a snowbank. We still are using only the truck for transportation. The car is now finally visible but still stuck in ice and snow. At least we can see where it is at last. I started more seedlings, two kinds of eggplants, five kinds of peppers and cilantro. They say you can’t transplant it, but I always do, twice a year to have a steady supply while the weather permits. We’re among the people who have a genetic preference for cilantro.This morning the first eggplant seedlings popped. Woody dug out the greenhouse this week, took all the stuff out of it he had been storing there, set up the indoor-outdoor thermometer and took the hardy seedlings I started before our Michigan drive out there. There are even a few bare patches of ground, although not many. The gardens are all fields of white but the snowpack is receding, however slowly. Thursday we were able to go into Boston for the first time since late December. We buy wine in Boston because the prices are much better and there’s far greater variety. We were down to very few bottles. Also went to Whole Foods to stock up on naturally raised meats. I am leery of super market meat, although we have had to consume a bunch of it during the period Boston was inaccessible. Whole Foods has finally come to Hyannis, but it’s a small store with not much choice. Yesterday I renewed my driver’s license. That’s always a nervous making activity, since I have glaucoma and am afraid of not passing the vision test; but I did. I feel less stress today than I have in several weeks. Driving all that distance, navigating winter territory with my artificial knees, giving three readings, etc. had been hanging over my head. I hadn’t done anything so strenuous in two years. Then came the freak storm. Then came the driver’s license renewal. I slept better last night than I had the past two weeks. My knees and back are still sore from the trip, but I am glad it’s over, the checks have begun to trickle in and I know I can do what I have to. I had an essay to write this week for Amazon. The publicity woman at Knopf asked me to do it for the publication of MADE IN DETROIT. It really is a gorgeous book and I’m proud of it. I have also been going over the hagaddah and dealing with invitations to the seder; dealing out who is to bring what is complicated although we do most of the cooking. The last five years, we hold it at the ex-firechief’s house [who is also an excellent cabinet maker] as it has gotten way too big for our diningroom. This year there will be 23 participants from as far away as Chicago, Albany, New York and London. Today we’re hoping for rain. Tomorrow I start researching Hannah Senesh for a long essay I’ll be writing for Linda Stein’s travelling art show about women heroes of the Holocaust. With so much covert and overt anti-Semitism happening, it’s timely unfortunately. Many years ago I wrote an introduction to her diary and biography.