March 18, 2012

Bloodroot beaten to white ruin by rains, replaced by the scarlet trillium. The back yard is as I’d dreamed it, a rough blanket of wildflowers like the floor of a forest. The mockingbird is fooled by moonrise into singing in the dead of night.

Gave a former student $600–a cut rate, as it was his first time-- for proofreading and editing The One with the Beautiful Necklaces. I’d never thought of contracting such a service before, and it was half an experiment to see if it would be useful to me, half to get him started in a career which appeals to him. I DID learn the difference between “that” and “which,” which has been a dark spot all my life.

Finished my application for the professorship. It will at least allow the illusion of full participation.

Sang Howells and Bernstein to a packed house at Central Methodist. The boy soprano barked on his high note. It was OK; it was sweet; we got to hear the onset of puberty.