Weekly recap of my ritual of existence in this liminal space called life. (See here for more info.)
- Weather
The weather was pretty moderate this week. We got about 5 inches of snow and 1.3 inches of rain (rain measured by the weather station). Average high temp was 34.4°F with a range of 31°F to 42°F. Average low was 26°F, with a range of 8.8°F to 30.7°F. Nothing overly warm, nothing bitterly cold.
- Beginnings
Several new birds in the yard this week!
Cooper’s Hawk, smack dab next to the bird feeders, on Saturday morning. My husband took photos with a phone through a window and screen, and the motion camera also picked it up. Somehow, iNaturalist identified it from the window pic and three experts chimed in almost right away to agree.
First saw a pine siskin on Wednesday, and by the weekend there was a small flock of pine siskins on and under the feeders. They mix and mingle with the goldfinches well.
Also on Saturday, a male purple finch on the feeder, noticeably larger than the other finches so far. (Better pictures to come next week; our windows are scratched.)
And, not a bird, but on Sunday I saw my first red squirrel this year, running across the snow under the feeders. Too quick to get a photo.
- Flora, Fauna, Fungi
We seem to have a grey squirrel pair, often out near the feeders or chasing each other in the snow and around trees. (Second shot of both squirrels — or 1-1/3 squirrels — is from the motion camera.)
Lots of birds flitting around this week at the feeders and nearby shrubs and trees.
Crows! Hard to photograph and very skittish!
More birds.
(If you’re not into birds, come back in April when there will be photos of insects, plants, perhaps fungi or mammals, et al. Plus birds.)
- Wandering
We walked on Monday afternoon in Warner, NH, including ducking into a small local coffee shop for a few minutes when it was mostly empty; on Thursday in town, running some errands; and on Saturday (twice) around a pond in Hanover, NH. The snow, slush, ice, and rain have meant large puddles along the town roads (the better for vehicles to splash us) and a lot of wet dripping in the woods.
Warner
Hanover
In Town
- Curiosity & Discoveries
This week in Virtual Birding, via Zoom on Monday, we went to Maine, Ontario, Czechia, and a new spot, the central highlands of Arizona. Here are an acorn woodpecker from Arizona and a great spotted woodpecker from Czechia, both new to me. We also saw javelinas in Arizona!
- Creating
Nothing comes to mind. February will be creatively busy, as I embark on the Write 28 Days project.
- Repairing and Maintaining (everything but the house)
Body/Mind: I worked out four times (4 hours) this week and took three walks. We both also counted our chair squats over 30 seconds, per the (gifted link) NYT’s Take the 30-Second Power Test. We passed!
Cars: Husband hosed the salt and dirt off the cars on Thursday (when it was warmish).
Yard: Husband snow-blowed the driveway on Wednesday. On Thursday, when the high was 42°F, I turned the compost to keep it warmish and enable us to add more to it this winter (used some boiling water to help it along). We brought in the birdfeeders at night on Thurs, Fri, Sat, and Sun, due to warm overnight temperatures + bear sightings in town.
Hobbies: On Friday, my husband finished putting together a wooden Model T model I gave him for Christmas. It works!
- Nesting
Cleaning/Maintenance: Dusted living room and vacuumed living room, dining room, hallway, and kitchen on Tuesday. Husband went to the dump on Tuesday. To better take bird pics through the family room windows, we removed and tried to clean them again; turns out that what looked like smudges are scratches. After winter, we’ll try to polish those out.
Finance: Removed the car we no longer have from the bank’s autopay this week.
Food: I made a tuna noodle casserole (halved it to serve 4, which actually serves about 6) on Wednesday and a new tortellini-spinach-bell pepper dish on Friday. (I doubled it to make 6 portions; the spinach is local and the 8 cloves of garlic are ours.) Otherwise, it was leftovers or prepackaged Indian dinners. The tortellini dish was a bit disappointing, too bland. I tried to buy fresh basil to use but neither store had any that wasn’t brownish. Next time I make it, I’ll be sure to have fresh basil and instead of all white wine I may use vegetable stock (or fake chicken stock), or maybe a combo of wine and stock to boost the flavour. My husband made blueberry pancakes on Sunday.
Supplies: We went to the regional co-op on Saturday — really chuffed to see that about half the shoppers/staff were masked — and stocked up on some things there.
- Sleeping & Dreaming
I had an average of 7 hours 50 mins of sleep per night this week, with a high of 10 hours on Tuesday night and a low of 6 hours 52 mins on Wed. night. My average sleep score (out of 100) was 86.3, with a high of 92 and a low of 83.
Dreamlife (partial):
In an apartment for a week, overlapping with our neighbours, thinking sink has disposal for orange peels but switch is for a vent. I start to empty dishwasher full of pottery mugs neighbours used. See same neighbours in Boston, he teases me that he’s seen a clown.
In another apartment, with older couple and another older man who is waiting for phone call. I’m upstairs when phone rings, I pick up extension when someone downstairs picks it up, and I hear the man on the other end talk about Mantovani so I hang up.
In hotel I come downstairs to see friend, Ann L., who I thought had already left but as I approach her door she runs out into corridor towards thermostat on opposite wall yelling my name and we hug and stay hugged. My sister comes along, I ask her to take a photo of us, and Ann, who is tall, keeps trying to look shorter.
Same hotel, my sister and I in small out-of-the-way room eating sort-of pop-up breakfast buffet. My sister asks for meatballs from the attendant, a young man with broad Scottish accent, who gives her two shrivelled meatballs; he refuses to give her any of the three large ones, telling her she’s had enough. He’s packing up to leave as my sister, to my surprise, taunts him. I tell him she can have my allotment of meatballs but he’s unswayable. My sister’s final taunt is “Oh, I forgot you were born this morning.”
I’m with neighbour in the woods. She has maybe written something up on paper or phone about how to grow “the white type” of borage, which apparently her husband really likes.
There’s some kind of video game people are playing, and other people can “like” what they create with it. One of the ways it can be “liked” involves killing other people or having them killed. I feel sad for a young guy because nobody has “liked” what he’s created. I go into large store that’s about to close(at 9pm) and somehow find video game area. I don’t know how to “like” his creation, but I’m carrying a wedge-shaped something to place in a certain part of the machine to bring up his drawings or whatever he’s created. I ask some boys nearby how to “like” his creation, and they show me and I do it. And then it turns out I’ve had someone killed, which is not what I intended, because there’s another way to “like” without having anyone killed.
- Reading / Words & Ideas / Listening / Watching
I read and finished Riley Sager’s The Only One Left, a somewhat suspenseful novel set in 1983, nominally in Maine (but except for being on the edge of a rocky coast, the location didn’t really matter). The protagonist is a disgraced caregiver who takes a job in a mansion where her client is widely believed to have killed her whole family in 1929. Interesting premise, but the pacing was slow through about three quarters of the book, with too much repetition of action and thought for me, and then it picked up speed at the end and became very twisty. Ultimately fairly satisfying.
I like this, posted on Instagram this week:
This recent finding of Covid’s association with significantly slower response times, persisting for many people, is concerning.
More on this study. And an essay looking at its numerical and economic implications in the U.S. And this is in addition to other studies, reports, and articles (this one, this one, this one, this one, this older one, this one (gifted link), etc.) showing pretty widespread and persistent cognitive disturbances and brain damage post-Covid.
I read this disturbing, actually nauseating piece in the NYT (gifted link), “He Died in a Tragic Accident. Why Did the Internet Say He Was Murdered?”. I’ve noticed the proliferation of these death-related disinformation websites suggested by Google as “trending” when I click the search bar on my phone, Now if it’s not Legacy or a local paper’s obituary link, I don’t follow it.
I listened to Why Are Americans Getting Shorter? on “On Point” on Friday and found it interesting as a critique on American public policies since the 1980s (transcript also available).
On Saturday evening, we re-watched this sort of philosophical film, one of my favourites, Things to Come (L’Avenir; 2016) with Nathalie Huppert, Roman Kolinka, and André Marcon.
- Connections & Community [relationships, local support, giving/donating, receiving, friends, neighbours]
Shopped at the local farmstand on Friday, local co-op also on Friday, regional co-op on Saturday, local drug store on Thursday, and had coffee and snack at a local coffee shop on Monday.
Talked with my sister by phone for 20 mins on Monday and 25 mins on Friday. Ran into a friend at the local farmstand and chatted briefly on Friday. Picked up a few items for two friends from the regional co-op on Saturday. Sent a friend a birthday card on Saturday. The usual texting and emailing.
Voted in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday. (Stickers were designed by elementary school students.) Saw and chatted with several friends there.
Tuesday afternoon, I hosted my poetry group, seven of us, for a fun two-hour get-together to share poems and other stuff.
On Thursday morning, I hosted our permaculture meeting (via Zoom). Eight of us attended, including two from Florida and one from Concord, NH. Always a great time. No Salon this week.
- Endings [finishing/harvesting]
Nothing comes to mind.
- All This Useless Beauty
featured image: artwork by painter Yuri Vasnetsov, text by Alina Pleskova
⫷ FIN ⫸
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