My continuation of Sharon Astyk’s now-completed “Independence Days” project (June-Aug 2022), which offered a framework for recognising how we’re building resiliency, community, and accountability that will make our lives better now and in the future. Many of Sharon’s categories are (or could be) related to gardening, so it seems to fit here on this blog. Equally, none of them has to do with gardening. They’re all multifaceted.
I’ve modified Sharon’s categories to better match my own life and community; I may continue to tinker with the framework as time goes on.
- Plant something: plant, start something
A previously ordered Christmas wreath from a neighbour’s granddaughter (who is selling them for a class trip) was delivered on Saturday and it’s up on the door.
That, along with the moving of the little British car into place in the garage on Monday and the stringing of the outside lights by my husband last week, marks the start of the Christmas/winter season for our house & grounds. I also created and ordered our custom Christmas cards today.
Husband started making sourdough bread today! He got some starter from a friend a week or so ago and last night had more instruction on feeding it and using it to make breads. Hoping for some savory homemade sourdoughs in the near future.
- Harvest something: harvest, forage, glean, or bring to fruition
Actually harvested some parsley from the vegetable garden for dinner on Monday. It was almost frozen but not so much that I couldn’t use it.
Fruition: We took a 3-day trip for Thanksgiving this week to the New Hampshire coast to feel salt air, eat Indian food for Thanksgiving, and look for birds.
Husband didn’t glean these things but the prices are so low that it almost feels like it: on Monday, he went to the state surplus store and got a small working refrigerator, an orbital sander, an air rachet to turn bolts, and a nice set of Craftsman screwdriver bits with rachet, all for $85.
- Preserve something: food, local community resources
Local Resources: Bought loaf of rosemary olive bread and a cookie from local bakery on Saturday. Bought some groceries at a local co-op on Tuesday. Not local to us, but ate at two restaurants local to Rye NH (Wed., dinner at an off-hour) and to Kittery ME (lunch on Fri.) and got take-out from another local restaurant in Portsmouth NH (Wed. evening for Thursday).
- Waste Not: reduce waste, reuse, salvage & repair, give away
Husband resized a shirt (took in shoulders) early in the week.
- Keep Stocked Up: with food and emergency supplies, financial resources, and experiences that make life worth living
Food + Supplies: Amazon Subscribe & Save was delivered this week, including cans of tuna, large bag of cat food, four kinds of teas, laundry detergent, nuts, mouthwash, vitamins, and throat/cough drops. See above re purchase of small used refrigerator on Monday for extra storage (for emergencies, when we can power it with the portable generator, and for parties and dinners when we need auxiliary cold storage).
Financial Resources: Quite the opposite: On Friday I (digitally) received a large medical bill from a procedure performed in May 2022! On the small plus side, I changed an online newspaper subscription on Saturday, before it renewed next month, to save 70% on the annual price.
Experiences: Being by the ocean, as we were for three days this week, is a thing that makes life worth living for me. So does spotting plants, birds, mammals (turkeys on a residential croquet lawn on Thanksgiving Eve!; deer another night), insects and spiders (a surprising number of both still around), fungi, shells and rocks, sunsets and clouds, and other artifacts of life.
We ate inside two restaurants this week on our trip — a rare occasion for us in these Covid times — minimising risk as best we could by timing and by seating location. Both were fun experiences, with food and drink I can rarely get at our local restaurants (halibut! an elegant cocktail!) and which I really enjoy. Otherwise, while traveling we got take-out Indian food for Thanksgiving dinner (yummy, and also not available locally) and we cooked in our motel room for breakfasts. Lunch was snacks and leftovers.
I enjoyed walking at Odiorne Point State Park on both Thursday and Friday, as well as discovering Rye Harbor State Park, which we hadn’t visited before. (My FitBit recorded 16,340 steps on Thursday and almost 13,000 steps on Friday, which was the day we drove home after a few hours of walking.) Odiorne is interesting because it’s the site of a couple of gun batteries remaining from World War II, when the U.S. government built Fort Dearborn on the (confiscated) land. There are bunkers (heavily graffitied), woodland and marshland trails, a sandy river beach and rocky ocean beaches, a pond, boats in the harbour, a breakwater, lighthouse and island views, a good science center, a playground, and much more.
And it’s a walk from a very nice retro motel, which was a pleasure itself in which to spend two nights.
Rye Harbor State Park was a short drive away.
Other fun things this week included two teas with friends, on Monday and Saturday (more on that below). I watched “The Making of a Longwood Christmas” on Zoom on Tuesday — always an excellent presentation, and this year’s theme is a “A Very Retro Christmas,” which is right up my alley; I was inspired, wowed, and entertained. And now I really want to see it in person.
I’m reading a crime fiction book by Peter Lovesey (The Finisher), set in Bath, UK, which is complex and detailed and I like it, and on Thanksgiving night we watched “Christmas Vacation” on the motel TV; we own the dvd but it was on and it was fun to watch for the 8th or 10th time.
Thanksgiving was nice and low-key, just as we’d hoped. The weather was great — about 50F for a high, breezy but sunny. We started with breakfast in the motel of the traditional orange rolls, plus scrambled eggs (I forgot the butter/oil but the motel had non-stick pans and it was fine!), and cooked frozen sausages and veggie sausages, all of which we’d brought from home. Then we walked for four hours at Odiorne. In the late afternoon, I read my crime fiction novel in the sun on our motel patio, while eating grapes, and husband napped, then we crossed the street from the motel to watch the sunset on the rocky shore. At about 4:30 we had our abundant Indian repast (kara curry, lamb biryani, aloo paratha, extra basmati chakwal, mint chutney, and a nice portion of vegetable pakoras) with wine, followed by a dessert assortment of orange rolls, a rice krispie treat, and some Mandie’s cococnut cookies, plus tea. A little Macy’s parade, a little football, and “Christmas Vacation” rounded out the day.
- Food Stuff: learn new food skills, try new recipes, use what’s available in the pantry, use what’s grown/made locally and what’s seasonal
See above for travel food. Since returning, it’s all Indian leftovers. On Monday I made a sofrito risotto with corn, bell peppers, garlic and onions, our parsley, and shrimp. We also ate it on Tuesday and there’s some in the freezer for a dinner this week. I have fresh spinach and broccolini I need to use this week, too.
As I mentioned, my husband is venturing into sourdough land. He got some starter from a friend last week and last night he fed it and let it sit out until he was ready to use it today to make two loaves of a simple King Arthur-recipe sourdough.
- Be Neighbourly: contribute to community support systems, look for ways to help neighbours and others
On Friday night, we (husband) picked up four packages and the mail that had been held for about a month and left it in our friend’s house for his homecoming on Saturday afternoon. Renewed memberships on Monday in a local land trust, a small NH art museum, and a Maine estuarine research reserve.
- Skill up: learn new things, especially skills or knowledge that remind us of our place in the natural world and within the social fabric
We’re continuing to practice learning bird calls and identifying and distinguishing among various shore birds and pelagic birds. Husband is learning to make sourdough bread, a good skill to have (and even better if you know someone with that skill 😉).
- Tend & Maintain: maintain our bodies, minds, and relationships to keep us resilient; and do what’s needed in the house, yard, and elsewhere to prevent failure/breaking/hassle down the line
Bodies/Minds: Husband had a routine medical appt. on Monday. He got a much-needed hair cut on Tuesday.
House & Garden: The new-to-us Jeep needed a new battery, which my husband bought and installed on Tuesday. He put snow tires on the BMW today and he also took trash and recycling to the transfer station.
Relationships: I had a newish friend over for tea for three hours on Monday. It was good to catch up in person instead of just through Instagram chat and texts. 😊 On Sunday, my husband and I went over to friends’ for tea and homemade scones and to learn more about the mysteries of sourdough.
Texted/emailed quite a bit with several friends and with my sisters this week. I ordered some Christmas gifts for friends/family on Tuesday and today, and sent a card and ordered a birthday gift for my sister yesterday. Neither permaculture nor Salon met this week due to the holiday.
- Winter is coming: notice Earth’s seasons and our own seasons of life and daily rhythms, and look ahead to what’s needed now to make life better in the future
Well, we got about five or six inches of wintery snow on Tuesday night, which my husband had to clear for the cat-sitter before we left on our getaway Wed. morning. Then the temps rose and the snow turned to rain. It’s been above freezing this week (though lows in the teens on a few nights), so most of the snow melted, but there’s still a light covering on our lawn. I’d say meterorological winter is about here.
The cat is enjoying the woodstove, as are we.
While we were away, on Thanksgiving night (on the motion camera) …
Thank you, I always learn something and a lot of appreciation, Debbie
Thanks for commenting, Debbie.