Good morning from glorious Portland, Maine, where the beds are welcoming, the lupines are stunning, the men make dinner, and nobody unpacks until morning.

I am extremely glad to be home.

Also, I seem to have been overcome by sleeping sickness. I took an afternoon nap, fell asleep on the couch after dinner, then went to bed and slept like the dead until the cat woke me, then slept some more until the alarm woke me.

At the moment I still appear to be awake but we'll see how long that lasts.

I think things in Vermont are stable. It was difficult to leave, and I cried, but my mother assured me that this was the right thing to do, and I know she meant it. They have worked out a way to keep going. My sister is close by. They want their house back to themselves, and they want me to get back to work and to my household. Everything is so hard for them right now. It felt wrong to leave them, though I know it was not wrong.

Anyway, right or wrong, here I am, full of sleep. I hope to make it through my exercise class this morning, but I'm out of practice and may collapse halfway in. I hope to unpack and do some laundry. I hope to reacquaint myself with my desk. I hope to mow grass. Tom, that prince, cleaned bathrooms and floors yesterday before I got home, and also did the grocery shopping, so those are two big chores off my list.

I'll get done what I can get done. I am bone-tired, and I have been working like a mule for the past week on very little sleep and with considerable panic.

These are my lupines. Maybe you can see why I love them so.