In pouring rain on Tuesday, we went to Bayberry Nursery in Truro to get a holiday tree.  We had been warned that people had been buying trees since before Thanksgiving.  Since there are far more people on the Outer Cape than is usual in the winter, folks who normally live in the city but have taken refuge from Covid here, there’s been more demand for many objects so why not trees?  At least somebody is making a living.

 We bought a nice bushy healthy balsam.  Of course, we made the exact same mistake we commit every year.  We bought it home and up to the house.  It barely fit through the door. It takes a fair amount of the living room.  At least, there’ll be no Solstice Party, no visitors from out of town or down the road.  The cats should enjoy it. Willow went for it at once and has gone under it several times and stayed there.  Mingus so far has shown no interest but Scwhartzie seems a little alarmed by it at first.

 Here the storm on Monday night was not too bad.  We got plenty of rain that we really need.  Doane’s Run overflowed.  And what’s still in the garden grew a couple of inches.

It turned colder then, although it was sunny midweek.  The Beaver Moon was huge and bright, so bright I found it hard to fall asleep.

I don’t know when or if my assistant Dale will come in Monday, but it’s doubtful as his partner Stephen had a hip replacement Friday at Mass General in Boston.  Hip surgery generally doesn’t seem to take as long as knee or shoulder replacement does.  I hope Stephen has a good and reasonably fast recovery.  So we had to get out all the lunar calendars I send to friends in early December every year and my annual ‘care package’ to my friend John Nichols, the writer, who lives alone in Taos and is having a hard time isolating during Covid. 

 I’m giving far fewer presents this year as Melenie and Jay won’t be visiting nor will anybody else be coming over.  The library is closed.  Usually I use the library very heavily, especially getting books from elsewhere on the Cape or from distant libraries when I’m doing research. But I haven’t had anything from the library since March and don’t go there. The cleaners I used for years after my knee replacements haven’t been here in over six months. I only three of my women friends and with cold weather having finally arrived, I don’t know who will be comfortable sitting  in the living room even with the door and two windows open and the ceiling fan on.

I can’t understand why I’m so busy, since I’m not traveling to gigs, readings and meetings are all on line, my garden work is essentially over till mid-February when I start seedlings in the storage room. But I seem to be busy all the time. I guess instead of doing shopping, I order what I can on line.  I have been in only one store since mid-March.  The farthest I’ve left the house since the present surge began is down the drive to the road , uphill to the cul-de-sac and back again. All that’s left in the two upper gardens are some crops in raised bets – parsnips, leeks, Swiss chard, greens, Chinese cabbage.  The first three seed catalogs have come and we sent in one order already.  Harris seeds doesn’t send their catalog till after I’ve done all my ordering in very early January, so I order much less from them than I used to – garden supplies like peat pots.

 I had a productive week and wrote three poems.  One has already been accepted by the Monthly Review, “the great denial.”  Friday we put lights on the tree..  We don’t do a fancy tree ala Martha Stewart. We do a messy, overcrowded, gaudy fun tree.  I’ll likely send a photo next week as we’ll start trimming it tomorrow.  Woody doe the work of setting up the tree and putting on lights and hanging on some ornaments especially high on the tree.  I do the lion’s share of decorating.