This afternoon I will drive to Portland to pick up Tom, and then we will keep heading south to Massachusetts and his parents' house. This will be our first holiday without our older son, who will be staying in Chicago with his girlfriend. But the college boy will be with us, and one son is way better than no sons at all.

The college boy is a vegetarian, and I am responsible for his Thanksgiving main dish. So he and I decided on this recipe from a recent New York Times feature on vegetarian holiday dishes: Savory Bread Pudding with Kale and Mushrooms. Yesterday I precooked the kale and the mushrooms, grated the cheeses, and cut the bread into cubes; and tomorrow I will quickly assemble and bake it without (I hope) interfering too much with my mother-in-law's cooking schedule.

Last year Tom and I hosted a giant family Thanksgiving here in Harmony. We ate in Tom's shop at a long improvised table. There were candles and Christmas lights and kids playing whiffleball in the yard. But never again. Yesterday I threw my dahlia bulbs onto the compost pile. I took down my birdfeeder and added it to the storage pile. No more morning birdfeeder musing on this blog. No more hanging laundry in a spring wind. And now Tom is trying to sell the lawnmower. Everything I do is vanishing.