Maine has a freeze warning this morning (though I'm pretty sure our coastal enclave will be spared), and then temperatures are supposed to rollercoaster into the high 50s. It will be one of those days that begins with a furnace, shifts to open windows, and ends with a wood stove.

Yesterday I mowed "grass" in the backyard, and it does look somewhat better out there. That patch is the David Crosby of lawns: both bald and hairy, and not the best of either. At least the front garden is presentable. Nasturtiums are sprouting in plant pots, zinnias and cosmos are up in the beds, and last night we ate a salad of arugula, spinach, violet leaves, and sorrel (tossed with store-bought cucumbers).

So far I have made two desserts in my excellent new ice-cream maker: basic chocolate chip ice cream (delicious) and kiwi sorbet (also delicious). Next up, I think, will be grapefruit sorbet. I am extremely pleased with this maker: it is easy to operate and to clean, and the ice cream/sorbet texture is sublime.

Mostly, though, I've been at my desk, elbowing my way into that stack of editing. My progress feels so slow, but I am making a dent. Today will be another desk day, punctuated with bread baking, and garden work and maybe a bike ride. A friend gave me a good writing prompt that I'd like to try, but we'll see. Probably I shouldn't indulge myself with poems. I've got another friend's ms to finish reading, yet another friend's ms to blurb, and soon I'll also have a stack of residency applications to sort. Some staycation this is.

[Real story: I'm relieved, and extremely fortunate, to be working as much as I am.]