Walking Amidst the Signs of Spring

The witch hazel is in full bloom down at the bottom of the drive. I was worried about it as gypsy caterpillars had devastated it, completely stripping it to bare branches. I’m delighted it’s back. It has delicate yellow blossoms, many of them.Crocuses have poked out of the thawed earth and so have the first brave daffodils. My black pussy willow that we’d neglected to prune to keep it small had grown very tall. In a storm last fall it broke and toppled into my garden. Woody was able to trim some branches so that I could get at the parsnips, which we’ve been harvesting all week – previously the ground had been so frozen we couldn’t extract any. But I couldn’t get around to the east side of my garden to check the rose bushes.Woody finally found someone to cut up the tree and the broken trunk.Now I can walk back there. All our previous tree trimmers have aged out. Now we have to find someone to repair the roof over the dining room and replace the leaky skylights there. Every time it rains, we get puddles inside.Last Saturday night, Dale and Stephen took us out for a sumptuous dinner at Mooncusser Tavern. I would recommend it. It’s in an old and interesting building but the food is up to date and good.My poetry group met here Thursday night. I’d like to add a couple more members as this week because of illness and travel, there were only four of us. I like to get more opinions and hear more poems from other people. I really enjoy the group.This coming Thursday I have a reading with Charles Coe at Porter Square books in Cambridge. I’ve read there several times before. I’ll put together a reading this weekend. It’ll be a combination on my part of some poems from MADE IN DETROIT, since it’s recently out in paperback, and new poems. This week was quite productive. I wrote three poems and revised several recent ones. The feedback at the group helped improve two poems.The cats are feeling spring vibes. Even though everybody is altered, both male cats are showing even more interest that usual in Willow and Xena. Ten year old Mingus kept biting Willow’s nape last night while she was trying to eat supper. She finally got angry and tossed him off the table. She’s much bigger than he is although smaller than Xena. He tried to bite Xena’s neck, but he couldn’t reach it. All he did was get her interested in washing him vigorously. Willow has been rolling around the floor in pseudo-heat. Everybody seems happy. At my group, Schwartzie was snuggling with Mingus. About halfway through the meeting, he got up on the coffee table in front of Paula and Lucile, stretched out as long as he could and waited to be admired and petted. Am I not a gorgeous boy? he asked them. Woody tells me I’m beautiful and perfect.I had a 24 hour virus this week – no idea what it was or where I got it. I was queasy, couldn’t eat, had no energy, runny nose. But the following day slowly it went away and by supper [Woody made chicken soup] I was hungry and energetic.