Hooded eyes run in one branch of my Dad’s family, and I demonstrate the trait very well. I sincerely hope to avoid surgery — I’ve had quite enough of that, thanks very much — and I think it helps that I had my cataracts removed years ago, which gives me some leeway.

It’s a pity that so many people feel free to criticize the decisions others make about their very own personal bodies. At a certain point, living with a physical anomaly can get so awkward that a procedure that some would call “purely cosmetic” is necessary to the patient’s mental health. The operation to correct drooping eyelids — blepharoplasty, if I recall correctly — is a tricky business that no one with sense would undertake without a very good reason, and an even better surgeon.

A lovely, sunny Friday in Stratford. Today I’m cooking, and trying to identify a good winter spot for the widely spreading Maranta. This house gets two kinds of sunlight: too much and hardly any.