Back up to Seed(s)

I suffered a short relapse last Sunday after resuming a full busy schedule and running around. But by Monday I was recovered. Since then I have been exercising moderately and again resuming full activity. Today I started the first seeds of 2017: bok choi, Salad Bowl lettuce [not the best lettuce but a kind that can be easily started inside and then transplanted to the garden, as opposed to the other six kinds I will plant from seeds after the ground thaws]. 2 kinds of broccoli, two kinds of red cabbage, flat leafed and curly parsley and cilantro. I plant two kinds because one type of broccoli and one type of red cabbage are earlier to produce and the other type is a later variety, to extend the season. Every week now I’ll start a bunch of seeds, unless the weather gets really bad and I have to skip a week. Our greenhouse is the smallest you can get from a kit and still walk into, but it really works for us. We don’t try to overwinter anything in it. We only use the heat in late winter and early spring. But it was great to finally have it electrified after running the heater and fan on a heavyduty extension cord for years. Working in there once things get started and seedlings go out is a real pleasure. It’s usually warm enough when the sun is out so that I don’t even need a jacket. I sent out my new short story “The Service” this week and also several batches of new poems. I wrote a couple of new ones this week. I’m holding them to go over for possible revision. Tonight four friends are coming over for supper. I made a cherry pie this morning. I didn’t have quite enough sour cherries so I eked out enough fruit by thawing strawberries I froze last June. We’ll find out tonight if the combination works. Xena and Mingus have renewed their kissy relationship and have been sleeping together, Mingus semi-surrounded by much larger Xena. Schwartzie occasionally snuggles with Mingus [everybody snuggles with Mingus] but mostly he wants to play with the other cats. He likes to wrestle with Willow and play bag and king of the mountain with Xena. We had snow twice this week with rain in between but also some sunny days with the crystalline clarity we get sometimes in the winter. This time of year when we go someplace I amuse myself by telling the houses of summer people from year round people – very easy in the snow. Driveway plowed or with tire tracks? check. Lights on? check. Car visible? check. The daffodils have poked up through the snow in several places, the birds are coming into their mating plumage, ponds are clear of ice. The light is not as orange or golden but whiter. Everything points to our slogging into spring, even though I know there will probably be more snow before we’re done with it. Lots of people who have retired go away for the winter months, but I love it here. It’s a great time of year to get lots of writing done and also to master some activity I’d enjoy – or imagine I would. I have been intending since the first of the year to learn to use a sewing machine, but walking pneumonia stalled those plans for at least a month. Woody is skeptical. We’ll see if I really buckle down to it. We shall see! Maybe tomorrow I’l begin. Today I have a full schedule already.