Woody’s mother’s funeral was Monday in New Jersey.  He drove both ways in less than 24 hours, got up @ 2:30, left by 3:20, spoke at graveside, had lunch with family and got back home @ 9 pm.  Then we promptly lost power.  They restored power to us @ 6:30a.m. Tuesday but we lost it again in the evening.  Not as long this time.  Our generator was broken and it took to trips days apart to fix it.  If they didn’t succeed, we’ll have to buy a new one as we couldn’t live here with one.  We lose power often, winter, spring, summer and fall. 

Two tornadoes and straight high winds in addition struck the mid-Cape.  We got rain but only moderately strong winds.  Harwich where my O.D. with whom I had an appointment and my dentist in Yarmouth both lost power and are closed.  All of Harwich is without power and most of Yarmouth.  Woody went to his gym in Eastham Thursday but it was closed and without power.  He was glad when  they got power back. People  got flooded as near as South Wellfleet.

Everything needed a drink after that long dry very hot period.  It was too hot to do anything but stay inside in air conditioning [if the power was on].  We’re harvesting our red cabbages starting this week. I already made one red cabbage dish.  I’m hoping to be able to get into the garden again this weekend as I did Friday.  Maybe even today.  I have to pull the dead or dying lettuce and cilantro.  I’ve already started more cucumbers, cilantro and basil.  I made enough pesto this week to last us till next summer. We’re getting a few cherry tomatoes and our first pepper.

I’m working hard on the new poetry book.  I think what I’ve selected so far is probably too long.  I’ve made three run-throughs and cuts and now I’ve put poems in each of the sections in an order that I like.  On Mondays, Dale downloads from his computer all the poems in a particular section I’ve created, puts them all in uniform font and removes my name and address slug at the bottom of each poem.  He’s done two folders already, with five more sections to go.

I’m back in physical therapy after taking off the weekWoody’s mother died. Her death had a big effect on him, as you might expect. I still am effected by my mother’s death decades afterward.  I’m reading THE LEAVERS by Lisa Ko and enjoying it, although it’s a sad book in many ways. The rain helped all the growing beings, vegetables, flowers, bushes, trees, us, although all we’re growing is older.  Now it’s dry and pleasant.  We’re heading into a drought, of course, as usual these days every summer. The weather talkers say it’s going to be hot next week.  I don’t look forward to that.  I like it like this, in the 70’s, sunny, not much wind.  We used to get many more days like that.  This year we have no orioles or catbirds. This first year I can remember when neither returned in the late spring, the way they always have.  I miss the orioles more.

I also miss all the butterflies that used to visit our gardens.  I see cabbage butterflies often, but the swallowtails and frittilarias, the monarchs and mourning cloaksI used to enjoy I rarely or never see any longer. We’re still visited regularly by Helen’s bees from across the marsh. No shortage of slugs or snails.  I know it’s irrational, but I dislike slugs and rather enjoy snails.  On the other hand, snails here do far less damage than slugs. And to a human aesthetic, much handsomer and much less disgusting. Slugs, squash borers and cucumber beetles are usually our worst pests.  This year, it’s rabbits.  They are simply not afraid of us and it’s hard to make them run away if we try to get them out of the gardens.  The worst hit is the lower garden, but the main garden is also breakfast, lunch and supper for them.  My garden so far has been lucky, probably because everything is growing in raised beds – the containers being tall enough so I can sit on the ledge that tops two of the four sides. I haven’t written any poems or anything else this week because of putting all my time and energy into the new book. I’d like to get back to writing something more than a blog next week.

We replaced the old carpet in the downstairs office after I let the water overflow just before the storms hit and it got soaked. The phone rang while I was running the water and it was such an important phone call, I forgot the tub was running and it totally overflowed.  I’d had it since 1964, when I spent three months in Greece. It was a brown knotted carpet with a few zodiac signs in the pattern.  My then Robert and I bought it from a young woman who wove it to sell for her dowry.  Now she could get married, she said. I spoke demotic Greek then. I’ve replaced the carpet with a machine oriental in bright colors I found on Amazon.  Stores close, those remaining have less and we’re dependent on Amazon for lots of items these days.  There are no Apple stores left on the Cape.  Dale uses an Apple, so when we had to replace his aging computer downstairs, Woody had to mail order it.  Fortunately, there’s still a place that transfers data. Soon there may be supermarkets and hardware stores, but there will be no clothing stores at all. All gadgets, furniture, clothing, supplies of all kinds will have to be ordered online.  Maybe we’ll stop leaving our houses or apartments except go to work, unless we can do that too at home.