We had some light rain this week.  We still need a lot more, but at least we were not flooded like a lot of people in Rhode Island, where a foot came down in some towns in a short time.  Some is better than none and better than too much.

It has been pleasant lately, temperatures fine for outdoor planting and trying to walk.  I’ve already put in the Chinee cabbage plants I started. The cilantro didn’t make it.  I’ll look today and see if I have seeds to plant directly in the ground. I don’t know if I have any more dill seeds.  If I do, I’ll plant them, as what I planted before had very poor germination. It got too hot.

We went over to the Grotz house for supper.  Tasha made a wonderful pasta supper for us and a cousin of theirs and a friend from the Berkshires.  Their friends and their relatives tend to be interesting people. It’s always a treat to go over there.  We started outside with hors d’oeuvres and then moved inside [it was getting quite chilly] for the rest of the meal.

We hope this will be a quiet weekend as we have much to do around here, inside and out.  Woody also went to a barbeque Saturday.  My arm was so sore from all the digging I had done the previous days, I couldn’t lift that arm and it really hurt.  I decided not to go.  I’m not a great fan of barbeque anyhow. A lot of standing around, usually smoky and often the meat [what there mostly is] a bit charred. Woody, who had been longing for barbeque, had a great time.

He had a haircut Thursday that will have to last him until some time in December as the hairdresser he uses is having a hip replacement and will be out of the salon for a long time.  Anybody who cuts hair spends most of the day on their feet.

I subscribe to two archeology zines, one American, one British.  For some reason, they both came in the last ten days.  I finished the American journal first and now I’m most of the way through the British journal.  I am fascinated by archeology and to a less extent by paleontology. One thing that I’ve learned is that since women went into the field, skeletons of male warriors buried with their weapons have been reclassified as female and there have been information on Scythian women warriors that gave rise to the Greek stories about Amazons, etc.  When I wrote GONE OF SOLDIERS, I was interested in women’s roles in WWII here and in France. I became interested in the Jewish armed resistance when I was living in Paris with my first husband’s family and met friends of theirs who fought in the Resistance.

Today I plant fall lettuces, escarole, frisee.  Maybe some more radishes?  I will see how far I get today and tomorrow. What promises to be a contentious town meeting starts late this morning.  I won’t feel like cooking tonight and neither will Woody, so we’re going out to eat with two friends.  I haven’t been in a restaurant in two years.  I bit excited, a bit apprehensive.  Maybe there’s a way to eat outside. But I can’t help but be excited at the prospect, it’s been such a long time.  IF we chicken out, we can always get take-out and bring everyone back here.

Willow has once again regained her moxie and plays with Shaman for hours at a time, both evening, night and morning. She is once again around more.  However, when the man who cleans the wall heat pumps comes on Wednesday, it will send her into her wall condo for at least a day.  I was thinking about the fight or flight response.  The only things so far that has  intimidated Shaman is the hair drier.  But the next time I used it, he attacked it.  He has the fight response to what he sees as danger or trouble.  Willow has the flight response.  She runs away from conflict, aggression or what she views as danger.