Where's Spring?

It’s been cold, windy, raw. Today was no exception but at least it didn’t go below freezing, for a change. Just grey, chilly, occasional rain, sometimes soaking. I started pumpkins, summer savory, marjoram and three kinds of cucumbers Tuesday. I am finally caught up on blurbing all the mss. I promised to read and write something the publisher can use on book jackets. I continue to get through my books and send those I will never read again to the library for their summer sales. The peppers have mostly gone out to the greenhouse along with at least half of the tomatoes. I am running almost a week later than I had planned because of the continuing cold weather. At least we’re getting rain now instead of snow or freezing rain. Today Schwartzie received a great shock. A gobbler and a hen turkey came up on the kitchen porch and were looking it. He ran to the door and pawed frantically at the glass, standing on his hind legs. He cried and and yelled at us. Woody interpreted: “See I told you not to go on feeding those birds. Now look how big they’ve become!” I am proceding trying to get medical marijuana for my glaucoma. There are still no dispensaries on the Cape. Both the Attorney General of Massachusetts and the Governor are opposed to marijuana so there are no shops either, although we citizens passed a referendum legalizing marijuana a year ago. I’ll have to go over the bridge and into Brookline to get a type that should reduce my eye pressure at least some. I have no idea what the dispensary will be like and how much I’m permitted at a time. Today Stephen and Dale come over and well celebrate Stephen’s and my birthdays that are only 3 days apart. As soon as I finish writing this blog, I’ll make a pineapple upsidedown cake. I don’t much care for ordinary white or yellow cakes. It’ll be a meat and potatoes meal, including potato kugel. Dale’s making hors d’oeuvres. Woody will make a salad. It’ll be a roast beef. My friend Helen who has lived across the marsh from me for decades came for a visit yesterday afternoon. She’s a painter and a fellow gardener and cat lover. She also keeps chickens and bees. Her bees will be around soon to get nectar and pollen from our flowers and in a few weeks to do the work of fertilizing vegetables and fruit. When I moved here, her mother and her father, the renowned critic Edmund Wilson, lived in that big old white house, but Helen and her partner Tim moved here year round from New York many years ago. Helen is one of the selectmen who run the town – something Woody did for 12 years. She’s obviously enjoying it. Another women friend whom I’ll see tomorrow night is also one of the selectmen. Another dear friend Dan is back in Wellfleet for 12 days from his doctors in Halifax. We hope that they saved his life with a rare and experimental treatment that has gone on for almost a year including a bone marrow transplant from a donor in Germany. It is supposed to cure both his blood cancer and his H.I.V. Let’s hope. He has gone through so much, I passionately hope it works out. He’s endured enough pain for a lifetime. His partner Paul is giving a party for Dan’s closest friends here Sunday evening; on Wednesday just the two of them will come over for supper. I’m cooking Maryland baked chicken tomorrow for the party.