Anniversary on the Edge of Time

We did not celebrate our anniversary on the real date because my dear friend Elise was dying and I didn’t feel like a celebration. Now a month later I felt up to it and Woody agreed. Woody picked me up at the Friends of the Council on Aging meeting and we went straight to Moby Dick’s. There was already a line. Moby’s has terrific fresh perfectly prepared seafood and a BYO policy. Woody had swordfish, I had lobster, we split steamers and drank our California champagne. This week Thursday Elise would have come here to stay through Monday as she did every year. Sometimes she could come again in August; sometimes, not. But we always had this time. She is still much on my mind. I’ve made two attempts to write a poem about her but failed each time. We had been friends for so many years and shared so much of each other’s lives, hopes, adventures. This week I wrote an introduction to the new paperback of Woman on the Edge of Time coming out on its 40th birthday next year – 40 years since it was first published in 1976. I had not read it in several decades so I did so slowly a chapter or two a day starting right after my annual intensive juried poetry workshop ended. I worked on the introduction all week and sent it off to my agent Robin Straus. She liked it and is sending it on to Ballantine. I also wrote three poems that did work. Today I have to start writing my keynote speech for the Cape Cod Writers Conference. Woody and I will also be giving a three and a half hour memoir workshop. We muat put that together as soon as I finish the keynote. We’ve done so many versions of the memoir workshop –5 day, 3 day, 2 day, 1 day, 3 hour, 2 hour, 1 hour – that it shouldn’t be too much work. My assistant Melenie’s birthday was this week. We celebrated it together Monday as it was actually Wednesday which she took off. Woody and I made zucchini relish, 7 jars. I also made strawberry freezer jam, 8 half pints. I love freezer jams because they’re quick and easy and they don’t need nearly as much sugar as regular jars. This weekend I may get to pick black currants if enough of them are ripe – they’re running late this year. If so, then I’ll make freezer jam from them and also black currant vinegar, which I love. It’s a rich vinegar with a somewhat fruity flavor. Last night we had Lois and Ramon, their friend Bee from Cleveland and our friend Paul over for dinner. I made a potroast with many veggies and cranberries and we had one of our last salads from the garden until fall. I made a strawberry mousse, for desert [I actually typed strawberry mouse but fortunately saw my error in time]. Paul we’re feeding now and then as his partner my dear friend Dan is up in Nova Scotia. He’s Canadian and on their great health system. His form of leukemia has come back. He was in great pain in his bones. They’re switching his medication so he has to stay up there another month. We are somewhat overwhelmed with zucchini and yellow squash. I keep trying new recipes. Also this week I dried 3 large jars of zucchini. I discovered last year that it dehydrates well. we’re also harvesting much catnip. Some the cats get right away and some I dry for the winter. We are also getting lots of cucumbers and herbs. I have to start making herb vinegars and drying herbs this coming week. I’m reading The Turner House, a novel set in Detroit by Angela Flournoy and Richard Michelson’s More Money Than God and Rachel Heimowitz’s What the Light Reveals [both poetry] and enjoying all three.

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