Valentine’s Day dinner at 2601 DeKist (“the first DeKist house,” or DeKist 1) I took only two pics, one of them way too dark, and the other one a pic of Mariella’s kids Asiri and Juakim on their screens. They hardly noticed their surroundings, plus she had fed them earlier. Oh well! Mariella tells me that they only rarely get to spend time on their screens, so she let up on them this time.

 

 

Last Thursday’s dinner at 2615 DeKist (“the second DeKist house” “DeKist 2), was somewhat sparsely attended. All but four of the nine of us were either out of town or working. BUT: Dear Aaron, who has returned to the Bloomington fold having spent a think a year or so in Asheville North Carolina, is back, and brought a wonderful woman whom none of us have met before. Also, a friend of Mariella’s — damn, can’t remember her name right now — brought another new person, again and woman, can’t remember her name either — and a bunch of us women had a conversation at the dining table that reminded me of the olden days in the 1960s and 1970s, when we women were starting to get to know each other, in a brand new way, beyond the roles we were playing for our boyfriends and husbands. A wonderfully stimulating conversation. Thank you! Here they are:

 

 

The likely bigger oops came in the past two days, when the temperature plunged to 5°, and our poor peas, just planted, will they survive the ordeal? Right now, early afternoon, it’s 19° and tonight’s forecast to go down to 10°. After that it’s clear sailing, for awhile anyway. Solan popped his head under the double cover that the just planted peas are under yesterday and pronounced them “alive, but stressed.”

I just took this pic. We still don’t dare uncover them, even for a few hours, in this cold.