Wednesday, December 4th

THIS IS the latest I’ve ever planted bulbs but Raymond finally did dig a little bed over the wall and it seemed too bad not to use it, so I bought eighteen tulips this morning and set them in this afternoon under a pure blue sky—it was cold! One understands how animals scurry about preparing for winter. I have been doing the same thing for weeks, getting the storm windows put up, yesterday my snow tires, getting in extra seed for the birds (sunflower at $15.50 for 50 pounds is staggering!), firewood. And today I paid $211.00 for the November oil for the furnace. I tremble a little, for if I don’t write a book a year it just wouldn’t be possible to live here.

It is beautiful up here in my study in the afternoons, the sky over the sea reflecting the sunset and the great arc of the ocean all around me. In the mornings I have to pull the curtains, for the light dazzles.