These are all things to talk about:

First, I need to mention that I am officially a member of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, which is super fancy AND especially so because a student in one of my Rhinelander courses anonymously gave me membership as a gift! I am incredibly grateful and excited to go to the conference in Stevens Point this Fall! I heard Matthea Harvey was there last year, and I'm pretty sad to have missed it.

I met so many lovely writers and friendly artists at SOA. And Rhinelander was so wonderful that I constantly declared that I planned to move there.  Now that I am home, my plan seems sadly a little less realistic than it did at the time... I want to teach! 

Tomato plants taking over the back porch.

Thirdly, my friend Hannah Baker-Siroty is a Best New Poet! And my friend Rebecca Hazelton just had her second book snatched up by CSU Press minutes after (in Poet-Years) her first book won the Ohio State Poetry Prize. So. I'm happy to know such wonderful poets.

Another thing to talk about: I've been feeling sad about my garden. Matthew says this is just a trial run-- we've learned from our mistakes and will know better next year, but I wanted lots of peas and things to eat this year!

Earwigs have eaten much of the basil, all of the carrots, all of the chard, and all of the peavines. I have planted more peas in a hanging basket and transplanted tiny chards to a container. We'll see how it goes.

My tomato plants are lovely, huge, and bearing little fruit. I believe they'll grow luscious, red tomatoes in Fall, when the leaves are off the trees and the sun can shine into my yard. And in the Fall, if the past is any indicator, it will still be hot.

Also, where have all the spiders gone?

This guy matches my tomatoes.

In other news: it's Hippie Christmas
and I officially have a corner of my own!