(I’m reading two wonderful books at the moment. The first is The Sea Of  Tranquility, a novel by Emily St. John Mandel, one of the best-written books I’ve come across in years. It’s a portrait of the future and a tale about greed and short-sightedness.

I’m also reading a novel by Aamina Ahmad, The Return Of Faraz Ali, a mystery set in Pakistan, a very unusual book with  terrific atmosphere. It feels like I’m in Lahore, Pakistan.)

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We got up this morning and it was a beautiful day. Before breakfast, Maria said she had something fun she wanted to do. I took a shower and when I came out she was rolling a wheelbarrow full of trimmed lilac bush out to the pasture.

I could tell from her face she was having a blast. I wrote more about the farmgirl controversy – time to move on – and then we went to visit friends and go see a new play at the much improved Oldcastle Theater in Bennington, Vt.

The play was terrific, one of the best either of us have seen in years, maybe ever. It was called Souvenir, A Fantasia on the life of Florence Foster Jenkins.

She was a wealthy socialite and musical cult figure in the 1940s. She had a book published and a movie made about her. She was a famous and wildly popular coloratura soprano who made it to Carnegie Hall.

The thing about her was that she couldn’t sing well or really, at all, yet her extraordinary fame brought her regular concerts at the Ritz Carlton and invitations to sing all over the country. She was convinced of her own talent and often misread laughter for applause.

She died believing she was a great singer. I was crying at the end, a great performance by two experienced actors.

It was wonderful to see a play again after a nearly three-year hiatus, and we will see three more this summer at the Williamstown Theater Festival.

I love the theater very much and have missed it.  It’s the one thing in my former life that I really miss, apart from my daughter. Maria has come to love it as well.

I’m not sure what the week brings. I’m hoping to meet the new Principal at Bishop Gibbons Catholic School in Schenectady, N.Y. where the refugee program is going.

I’m bringing flowers to the Mansion again tomorrow. and I need to keep working on my rest and healing, the virus is fading but still has some sting. I wear out quickly and sometimes weaken,  but I am getting stronger by the day.

The Amish will deliver me another small garden bed, this one is earmarked for primrose flowers. I  hope to return to the gym regularly. And there are a dozen things I’m eager to write about.