I spent yesterday planting sprigs of creeping thyme among the stones of the newly unearthed front walkway, edging and reshaping the front flower beds, and then moving blueberry bushes so that they now line one side of the walk. The discovery of this walk has entirely changed our notion of the front gardens, mostly in a good way, though digging it up was garden bootcamp. Still, it's gratifying to be a 54-year-old woman with enough stamina and strength to spend all day lugging rocks, wood, and sod. Homesteading may not be an elegant sport, yet it's not an amble in the park either. Apparently, I don't require 40 acres of forest in order to be covered in mud.

Today, housework. And then I'll go outside and consolidate the compost pile and start preparing a spot for the two cords of firewood that will be arriving in a couple of weeks. This slow, wet, cold spring is aggravating as far as planting goes, but it's giving me plenty of time to do my less delightful chores.

The dates are set for my upcoming 24PearlStreet class: Revision and Re-Vision: An 8-Week Master Class on Generating and Revising Poems, beginning on July 8 and running through August 30. There is a discount available: Through May 17, you can get 15 percent off tuition with code EARLYSUMMER. After May 17, you can get 10 percent off with code SUMMER19.