Weekly recap of my ritual of existence in this liminal space called life. (See here for more info.)
- Weather
High temperatures ranged from 24°F to 9°F, with lows from 1.4°F to 13°F. Fairly chilly but we had some sunny days, it wasn’t too windy (except a couple of nights), and it was pretty nice walking weather. About 4 inches of light snow fell all day on Tuesday, with flurries one or two other days. Looking ahead, we’re back to warmer temps and rain next week.
- Beginnings
We flipped the mattress on Monday!
- Flora, Fauna, Fungi
The fox was back on the motion camera this week, scouting under the bird feeder.
Some birds in the yard this week; I was a little obsessed with the many moods of the jay:
- Wandering
Walked in town on Monday, Wed., and Sat, and around the lake on Friday, about 5 hours in all. On one walk, we watched the pileated woodpecker making two flights, such a sight to behold.
- Curiosity & Discoveries
This week’s session of Botany in a Winter (on Zoom, through Maine Audubon) took us into monocots, including some that are very familiar to me: Jack in the Pulpit, skunk cabbage, and duckweeds.
I found this succinct description of what a lichen is (fungus + algae) and how it works, which I’ve known in the past but forget easily; it was written by Kristin Andres and appeared in the 17 Jan 2024 issue of the newsletter of the Association of Protect Cape Cod.
I came across this recipe hack and it’s worked successfully on my laptop and phone! You can also make the recipe ingredients scalable to any number of servings. A marvel.
- Creating
A gardening group I’m part of met via Zoom on Tuesday evening to share with each other our three-to-five favourite plants — any type, from annual vegetables and herbs to trees, shrubs, grasses, perennial flowers, whatever. I spent about four hours that day choosing plants. finding photos of those plants from my files, and creating collages for each. It was fun! (Click on each for closer view)
- Repairing and Maintaining (everything but the house)
Body/Mind: Worked out 4 times (4 hours) this week and walked outside most days. Got my hair cut at 7:30 a.m. one day this week (masked). Took two Covid antigen tests on Friday and Sat., both negative.
My mind is being kept sharp with the Maine Audubon Botany class that met (via Zoom) on Wednesday evening and (maybe? there seems to be conflicting evidence) by all the word and pattern puzzles I do on my phone every day. I picked up a non-fiction book from the library this week, Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us (2022) by Rachel Aviv, recommended by Bess Kalb in her newsletter, which I hope to get to next week.
Vehicles: One of the vehicles was inspected on Thursday and passed, yay. (The others don’t need be done until 2025.)
Finances: I updated and looked over the checking account for the last month on Wednesday.
Yard: I tromped in the snow to clip some leggy andromeda (Pieris japonica) branches that were possibly hitting the frozen house siding in the wind and causing eeries noises all night on Friday (when temps were down to almost 0°F). My husband clipped an inch or two off the parachute cords that hangs vertically on the outside of many of our windows to deter bird strikes, as they may also have been blown into the siding.
- Nesting
Cleaning/Maintenance: I did sheets laundry and we flipped the mattress on Monday. Doesn’t happen often! On Wednesday, I cleaned the bathroom floor and toilet (exterior too) and also cleaned the kitchen counters and the fridge exterior, all taking about 1.5 hours.
Supplies: I ordered some hair product from Grow Gorgeous (my usual supplier) on Monday — it arrived a few days later. I changed the Chewy autoship for March and May so that cat litter won’t be shipped with cat treats and crush them in the delivery box, doh. I was influenced — again by Bess Kalb — to buy some French creme, Embryolisse Lait-Crème Concentré, for face and body ($14, which is pretty cheap for this sort of thing). On Friday I ordered some mechanical pencil leads and erasers, which I use a lot and which are both running low. Ordered more (different from last week) teas from iHerb on Sunday, as the local co-op and local groceries don’t carry them and now Amazon doesn’t offer them through Subscribe & Save anymore (and iHerb is really reliable).
Almost no groceries were bought locally this week because there was a fire, accompanied by chemical fire retardant dousing its contents through the sprinkler system, at our local (chain) grocer on Friday and it’s still closed, until at least 28 Jan.; I did a small shop there before the fire, on Tuesday, and now if I need groceries beyond what the small local co-op offers, I’ll have to drive 20 minutes minimum to the nearest store.
Food: On Thursday, my husband made a big boule of sourdough bread, and on Saturday he made blueberry pancakes. I made 6 crabcakes on Thursday, which took us through three dinners, including two with sides of coleslaw that I made on Friday (with local cabbage and carrots from the farmstand). On Sunday, I made a red pepper, corn, and shrimp risotto, and we had that with sautéed fresh local spinach for dinner, with lots of leftovers for next week.
- Sleeping & Dreaming
I slept an average of 7 hours and 40 mins per night this week, with an average sleep score of 86.7 (highest score was 94 on Sat night, honorable mention of 93 on Thursday night; lowest was 78 on Monday night). The averages are typical, as they almost invariably are within a week’s span, but the nightly range widely diverges, with one night of 5 hours 46 minutes and another of 9 hours 55 minutes.
The most vivid dreams: (1) I’m accompanying or following a friend (Lynn) around a grocery store through a dedicated produce section and then through each of many narrow aisles, all of which stocked some produce along with the dry goods: One aisle has dry goods plus shelves of scallions, another shelves of celery. She’s looking for something that she can’t find and eventually I see her leaving the store with celery as I’m in a checkout lane. (2) I’m putting letters on a high motel sign that say the motel should offer rooms at $39 per night in light of some calamity that has recently occured in the town or area. I quickly regret it, realising I’ve overstepped my bounds by doing this, so I get on a ladder to remove the lettering, feeling chastened. (3) One of my sisters has lost some weight and posted a blog entry about it with a video, which immediately goes viral and is on TV. I think how mortified she’d be to know this was being shown on TV. Next I see her in person, in a satiny purple top, and she says we need to talk to my other sister about her cocaine use, which surprises me as I didn’t know anything about this (in the dream or IRL!). (4) An artist friend (Luce) is showing three large abstract art pieces. Later, I learn that my left eye has three anomalies that mean I could go blind in that eye at any time.
- Reading & Ideas
New word: Not really new, but I’d forgotten what it meant when I came across it again this week.
This week, I read and finished Lars Kepler’s Lazarus (2018/2020), an extremely gory, violent, and psychologically harrowing novel in the Joona Linna/Saga Bauer series, set in Sweden. These are always well-written, well-plotted and well-paced, psychologically complex stories, with characters I’m interested in; and they are so dark. This one also had several graphic sex scenes, which discomfited me a bit until I remembered that “Lars Kepler” isn’t a mother-son writing duo, as I somehow had stuck in my head, but a husband-wife writing duo. 😄
I really liked this, from Patricia Lockwood’s essay titled The Secret Life in the London Review of Books, 25 January 2024, which is a book review of Blake Butler’s Molly (Dec 2023), about Butler’s wife (the memoirist, poet, and baker) Molly Brodak, who killed herself on 8 March 2020: “You do walk through the world with some people. You don’t know anything about them, but you walk through the world; if they die, you do not get used to it.” I experience this.
I read this sobering essay, When We Lose Our Most Beloved by Sharon Astyk, from which: “We’re losing species. Birds. Mammals. H5N1 was recently found in a dead polar bear. It has infected whales and dolphins as well, and may be related to whale beachings. We recognize that climate change is endangering more than half of all species — but many of them may go extinct before climate change can even get to them.”
I liked this poem: One Day by Marie Howe .
I spent an hour or so reading through Literary Hub’s “Forthcoming Books 2024” and took screenshots of 21 books that sounded interesting to me, to request from the library when they’re published.
I liked this poem (parts of a larger poem) posted by Andrea Gibson on Instagram this week; “this is my first time here” too! :
- Connections & Community
Local support: Shopped at local farmstand on Friday afternoon for veggies and a pack of seeds.
Relationships: Talked with my sister by phone for 35 mins on Tuesday. Texted a couple of friends undergoing challenges and difficult transitions this week. Emailed a friend on Thursday (long email).
Hosted a really sweet permaculture Zoom gathering on Thursday, with eight of us, including two in FL and one in VT. Salon on Friday, in person, was delightful, too, with all five of us locals attending. And I really enjoyed the gardening group Zoom meeting on Tuesday evening, sharing and looking at pictures of our favourite plants, flowers, seed packets, etc., in the deep midwinter.
- Endings
I am almost finished with the Grinchmas-themed candy kisses my husband gave me for Christmas. This is a design on one of the wrappers.
- All This Useless Beauty
“Gardens are about life and death, not only about pretty plants. My garden emerged from an ecology in which processes of decline and decay are intrinsic, and visible throughout the year. I need to make meaning of the dead tree snags leaning against the sky, water seeping over heavy clay, rot in autumn, the ripe smells of natural fermentation. Although I also have green springs and golden summers and snowy winters, I accept what is given. The processes of decay and making of new life are a governing characteristic, an idea-driver, in my garden.”
James Golden, garden designer and writer, in Planthunter, 30 April 2019
That fat tree sparrow!
I really like Patricia Lockwood.