This is our dear friend Michèle, with a backdrop of Greece where she and her husband Raymond spent about a week on vacation. It is amazing how much we miss them when they are away; Merwin especially is in constant contact with Raymond: they share a passion for music, especially collecting it and listening to it. Michèle and Raymond, both Shakespeareans from Rouen, France, are one of the gifts of hamletworks.org. A mutual colleague recommended Michèle to write the essay on Hamlet in France for the web site—which she did. You can see it and read it if you go to the Global section of the site. Since we met, we have visited and traveled with them in France several times, and they have been here too. iChat and email are now our means of communication.
Dear Friends and Family,
It's Friday, and I haven't written because sitting is a bit painful. On Tuesday, I did not feel well: I thought a cold was coming on, and perhaps it was, but I wapped it in the usual way: Echinacea and Cold-Eze. Symptoms disappeared (runny nose, headache), but I did not feel well. Sonia did a lot of kitchen work for us and then gave me a massage and told me to go to sleep. She left early, but she more than made it up on Thursday. We went for a walk along the Sycamore path at Tappen beach, and she marveled at the rising of the tide, quite visible as we returned from the end point. I love seeing things through her enthusiastic eyes. Then we went to Rising Tide so I could buy some vegetarian meatballs, which seem to work well here and then in our menus, and she wanted some pesto to use for a recipe she had seen on TV—salmon with a topping of pesto, sealed in aluminum foil. But I also gave her recipes for basil pesto and for parsley pesto (not as good but passable when basil is unavailable). She has a new Cuisinart and will enjoy making this simple recipe.
We like pesto very much: I have forgotten about it, like many other staples of our diet. The first year ever that we planted basil, we had a bumper crop of the most delicious basil we ever had before or since. Who knows why. I made pesto and froze it—enough for a whole year of pesto and spaghetti.
I feel that I have to push myself, whether I want to or not. I returned from a neighborhood walk that was a little hard for me today, but I labored on, stopping as each car approached to make sure I was well to the side. I noticed activity at many houses—gardening, adding, spiffing things up: the neighborhood does indeed shine. I noticed a huge dead mouse-colored frog and wondering where it came from. Before the walk, I prepared a farmer's cheese and egg casserole with apple slices bottom and top. It's a recipe I often make for brunch parties, but I suppose it can work any time.
My blood report came on Wed. with a worrisome rise in the white blood cells. Mine have been high for ages. They are supposed to be 4-11. Mine this week were 163; last week they were 128. So my doctor told me to add more chemo, the Hydroxy Urea I take, 1500 instead of 1000. OK. But the WBC rise does not account for this pain below my belly. And for once my platelet count was pretty good. More HU will bring it down.
The worst thing about this pain is that it limits my time at the computer. I want to work! I got a good reference from a star performance critic and entered it in the alphabib (as I call it) and in one of my colleague's page. I enjoyed that very much. Though I make many mistakes, our web master Jeffery has arranged things so that corrections are fairly easy. Onward!
Love to all,
Bernice
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