It's June 4, and it's 43 degrees and sodden in the little northern city by the sea. I stepped out this morning to take these photos, which don't at all capture the general chill humidity of the environs but do give you an idea of how even my backyard, so recently a barren plain, has transformed into a green monster.

 

The new shed is standing up to the weather, though, and adding its own intense greenness to the situation. 

* * *

I spent all of Saturday embroiled with my new poetry collection; and as of this morning, I have a complete manuscript. I know I need to strip out poems. The collection is too long--100 pages right now, including front and back matter--and I've already deleted many possible entries. But even though the current version is bloated, I continue to like the calendar structure, and I think I'm going to stick with it, at least as a first iteration. The book that became Accidental Hymn went through four or five transformations and titles, and that may happen here too. But possibly, in this case, I've figured something out.

And I've put in the energy, for sure. For the past two days I've thought of almost nothing else: walking past Tom in a daze, mulling and re-mulling and re-mulling. I daresay I won't be able to keep my hands off the book today, no matter how much I try to convince myself to let it stew for a while.

Funny how I spent months avoiding this job and suddenly it's become the only thing I want to do.

* * *

But what I ought to do today is get out of the house and go for a walk. It is very unlike me to spend an entire day doing nothing physical. I didn't walk; I didn't garden; I didn't exercise. I spent an entire morning standing in front of my desk staring at my computer screen and a stack of printouts. I spent an entire afternoon sitting on the couch staring at my computer screen and stack of printouts. I took a small break in between to make bread dough and put a rice pudding into the oven. Sloth plus carbs plus sloth. This is not a sustainable lifestyle.

It's supposed to be cold and wet for most of this coming week, and then on Friday I'm heading to Vermont for my nephew's high school graduation. I don't know what I'll accomplish on this book between now and then, but I'd best get myself off this couch and into the rain or I'll turn into a toad.