The new curtains and the blinds are all good. The black out blinds do keep the light out satisfactorily and the new curtains are very easy to open and close. The poems and lists have all gone off to WOMR and I’m done with it until the public reading with the regional winners and honorable mentions. I am free at last to read a book and I immediately started ORBITAL, by Samantha Harvey, the Booker Prize winner, that Gigi gave me. I’m free to get back to work on my book, which I did promptly yesterday morning. We are clearing things up.

I made picadillo last night. I remembered that a friend made it years ago and I liked it and somehow it popped up from deep in memory.  When I announced my menu for the evening, Woody was skeptical. But it turned out he liked it a lot and it will go into our rotation.

We will at least start out watching the Super Bowl. In so far as I’ll root for any team in this match-up, it’s the Eagles, mainly because I’d be very happy if anybody, any team [except perhaps the Cowboys whom I detest] could beat the Chiefs.  At least this game will be held in a neutral stadium.  In Kansas City, the referees are just a part of the Chiefs. They are incredibly biased. They hang a No Trespassing sign on the red zones, and when a visiting team gets into one, much of the time they will call a big penalty. Even the commentators are puzzled by the refs’ calls-- for instance pass interference. The Texans pointed out they were playing two teams at once (one being the refs).

With Dale’s help, I ordered the plants for this spring.  I ordered the tender spring planted bulbs – dahlias, calla lilies, acidantheras earlier in the week. A few perennials for the pollinator garden where something didn’t make it. But mostly,  I’ll be replanting the raised bed out front. It used to be shade but now with the sugar maple gone, it’s sunny.

All the seed orders have come, were logged in this week and put in nine envelopes: one for each week I’ll be starting seeds in the store room. As happens every year, there are seeds I order that they’ve run out of or that suffered a crop failure. This year, there were four, but only two of them matter to me – Carminat Pole Beans and Dill Dukat. I do want those seeds, so I’ll have to look for them in minor catalogs online.

Neither of us is feeling social right now. We’re in the mood to hunker down, do our own work and put effort into the house. Mounds of clutter accumulate. Things fall apart and unless we can repair them, need to be replaced. Woody’s been sewing loose buttons on his pea coat. I’ve been repairing jewelry.  Six pieces fixed so far. Both of us got rid of old socks this week. Why do I keep one sock after the other has gone missing? Do I imagine it will appear suddenly? (We humans are silly creatures.) I go slowly through my clothes, finding things I never wear and probably shouldn’t.  Books I’ve read and will never reread. Book sent me I haven’t read and never will.