Yesterday was just about perfect--the weather was dreamy, and T and I were outside together in the springtime from morning till night. We started our day at our favorite diner in Biddeford, arriving promptly at 7 a.m. so we'd be sure of a seat. Then we drove down to our favorite marshland, the Wells Estuarine Reserve at Laudholm Farm, and wandered the beach and the trails.

It was a quiet morning, still cool, and the tame waves rippled, and the sandpipers and the plovers busied themselves in the mudflats, and the Canada geese barked warningly from their nests.

We got home by noon, ate leftover homemade pizza for lunch, and then I dealt with laundry, did the mowing, and started weeding in the backyard. Meanwhile, T fixed my busted garden hose and undertook spring fence repair, mending the gash that a tree branch had torn over the winter, propping up various lazy posts. The cat wandered between us, delighted to interfere. I chatted mildly with neighbors. And then, when he was finished, T got our bikes out of the shed, pumped tires and oiled chains, and we took our first spin of the season. I am delighted to announce that my dogged winter exercise drill has paid off: my knees felt great (thank you, squats and lunges!) and my wind felt great (thank you, silly dance routine!), and we sailed around the neighborhood and through the cemetery, and I was extremely pleased with myself.

Afterward I fried lamb chops in parmesan batter, baked Yorkshire pudding, roasted tomatoes and kale. We ate the last of the mango cake, and we played cards, and we listened to the Sox stomp the Cubs. And then the pleasure of physical exhaustion, and then to bed, with an open window and sheets smelling of breeze.

What a day. And today will be another such, I hope . . . no outing to the beach, but open windows, tulips in bloom, garden beds tidied, seeds sowed, a bike ride or a walk, and maybe our first fire-pit meal of the season.

I've got some prep to do for next Sunday's chapbook session. I need to buy Mets-Sox tickets (another adventure: an early September outing to Queens with my NYC kids). But mostly I'll be outside. I hope you are drinking in the spring too.