Greetings from the old familiar couch corner. Greetings from little Alcott House on its little blooming plot. Greetings from the little neighborhood, quieted by school-vacation week but still rife with singing cardinals. Greetings from the cat, who is so, so happy we're home; who follows us up and down the stairs and in and out through the doors like a devoted little terrier.

We arrived home in the early afternoon, which gave me time to hang clean clothes on the outdoor lines, to open the windows, to pick up sticks from the most recent storms, to set up the new rose arch and the pea trellis, to fill a dishpan with baby kale. Last year's wintered-over crop has recovered spectacularly. It's a treat to have such bountiful early greens, enough to harvest in quantity for salad and for roasting.

The weather this week will be glorious--highs in the sixties and no significant rain in the forecast. I'm longing to rush out into the garden today, but I know I have to work: editing mostly, and I need to get my high schoolers' final pieces ready for the printer. I also need to return to some sense of routine: exercise, food, walking, etc. But probably I'll find a way to snag an hour this afternoon to plant my peas, and maybe sow some lettuce and radishes too, maybe even dig in potatoes and onion sets. I am so eager to get my hands into the dirt.