New Year’s Day we take down our beautiful tree, perhaps the prettiest we’ve ever had.  A perfect shape not too wide but quite bushy.  We’ll do it slowly all afternoon, putting the ornaments away wrapped in old tissue paper and into the hall storage closet.

I’m still reading mss. for my juried intensive poetry workshop next June.  I didn’t get much time to exercise over the holidays.  Woody was on vacation, but I couldn’t be.  For many women, holidays are a lot of work. But I still enjoy them.

Schwartzie is angry with Woody.  Cats can get angry at the people they love the most.  Schwartzie feels life was too disruptive over the holidays, too many people, too much time locked into a wing of the house.  Although many cats enjoy some novelty, the way Willow was crazy about the tree and spent a lot of time just gazing into it or dozing under it, they hate disruptions to their routine.  They want you to get up at the same time, feed them at the same time, play with them, give them treats on a schedule.  They feel safe then and calm.  By the waya, even cat food has been hit hard by the supply change problems.

Tonight we’ll eat the rest of the duck we had for supper New Year’s Eve.  Both Woody and I dislike that evening.  If you’re not on the prowl and looking to hook up, New Year’s Eve parties tend to be disappointing.  I can only remember a few that were good times – twice at a dance party with good music, and when Mac and Traci got married and partied all night with a live band.  That’s about it.  It’s a night for amateur drunks and highways are dangerous.  Waiting for midnight is boring.  We went to bed at our usual time and so did the cats.  I do remember when First Night in Boston was first begun and there were not a million people.  I remember some great New Year’s Eve First Nights with Etheridge Knight and Elizabeth McKim. But those days are long gone, as is Etheridge.

We had duck, bulghur wheat and creamed spinach.  We watched the sad Michigan-Georgia game and proceeded with the seed ordering we began Thursday evening.  We do about an hour/hour-and-a-half each night and then I finish up the flower orders myself as Woody has no interest in what I order and plant until it blooms.  Aside from marigolds and nasturtiums, every other flower seed I order is for the pollinator garden – to attract the various honey and wild bees, butterflies [the ones pesticides haven’t killed off] and hummingbirds.

In spite of all the holiday work and the scores of mss. I’ve read for my poetry workshop, this was a productive month.  I wrote nineteen poems and revised them.  Aside from the blog, I haven’t been writing prose lately.  I did an interview with Moment magazine for a panel on role models and people who changed my life. Seeds have egotten much more expensive this year, as has everything else.  Woody had the Subaru worked on this week as we intend to keep it as long as we can, the same with the truck.  We have no desire to buy a new car and they’re super expensive now.