1) Awake at 5:19 AM, decided to start the day. Chicory coffee black (I never did got grocery shopping over the weekend) in the parlor. Devotional included the last chapter of Galatians "(Let every man prove his own work”), Walt Whitman, The Art of Worldly Wisdom (“Never outshine your boss”), and the daily rituals of Gertrude Stein in Daily Rituals: How Artists Work.
1a) I’ve said this before, but I do love the dark, quiet pre-dawn hour (though I see that dawn is just beginning out there). It defines cosiness.
2) Who knows what the rest of this year will be like?
3) I have a black thumb, to be sure, but I have managed to keep this white hydrangea and this pink azalea going on my coffee table since I came home from Lago di Carlo, and that gives me a great deal of satisfaction. They are very pretty, and I hope they will transplant well to the garden this spring.