Yesterday turned out to be so busy: I cleaned bathrooms, washed floors, baked bread, did four loads of laundry, made a beef stew, and cut down plants in the garden, while Tom pried up old asphalt and then pounded it with a mallet to turn it back into gravel, which he'll use as a base layer for the new walkway. It was brute labor, but now we don't have to haul anything away to the dump. Meanwhile, Paul worked a long shift in the pizza kitchen, and the cat lay around in various leaf piles and relaxed.

So today is recreational. We're heading north this morning for Swan Island, though I'm feeling a little nervous about our bike rack, while trying to remember that it doesn't take much for me to get nervous and probably everything will be okay. The day will be cool, but we'll have a thermos of hot cider with our lunch.

I've spent so much time lately in the salt marshes that a riverine environment will be a novelty. I hope there will be eagles to watch.