I am still mostly avoiding national news and just watching and reading about local news. I can’t altogether avoid the disgusting choices Trump is making for his heads of departments apparently in order to destroy them. Picking Gaetz who has been linked to sex trafficking and sex with teenage girls for the Department of Justice is a way to dismantle it, as convicted felon Trump really is angry at that independent part of government. Now it will do his bidding.  I’m too old to pack up  and move to Canada.

I am very glad we live in Massachusetts and even more so as we live in the bubble of the Outer Cape. We are safer here. I haven’t’ felt so alienated from my country since the Vietnam War. The racism was a shock to my system. That was foolish of me. We’ve been racist since before our nation was even founded.

Melenie came to visit us yesterday for supper here. I made a spoon roast, roasted Brussels sprouts and bulghur. For dessert, ice cream and cookies. Melenie doesn’t drink any longer, but we had good red wine. An old vine pinot noir from Konstantin Frank vineyards in the Finger Lakes. I know a lot about wine and discovered those fine wines some years ago.  There are at least four or five wineries there I trust.

This morning, we drove to the Herring River across the new temporary bridge and then on to Duck Harbor so Melenie can see how things are changing here and how the Herring River Project is proceeding.  The new moon tides were massive (and it’s easy to understand why some of our otherwise marsh-like areas are called harbors).

We are still suffering a dangerous drought.  Wild fires break out all over Massachusetts every day and I live in fear as I have no wheels and no longer have a license so I can’t escape one if Woody is off someplace. Pitch pines are well named as they turn into torches quickly.

We had a surprise killer frost about a week ago. There was no warning on any of the weather apps and no weatherperson on TV gave us any hint of a frost here. Boston just got one with plenty of warning. The leeks suffered and are a bit mushy. I cooked some of them this week and managed to make them tasty (steamed and then baked with butter and whole wheat panko crumbs) but their texture was not as good as usual.

Woody is putting the gardens to sleep, and then he will be free to exchange screens for glass windows on the sun porch to keep it usable longer (and then, he reminds me, he is finally on to all his winter projects).