Weekly recap of my ritual of existence in this liminal space called life. (See here for more info.)
- Weather
Quite the weather week. High temps ranged from 42.8°F to 28.4°F, with an average high of 34.8°F. Lows ranged from 14.5°F to 28.6°F, with an average low of 21.4°F. We got an inch of snow on Tuesday and then about 2 FEET of snow — the most in one storm all winter — on Friday night through Saturday. Cleanup was a mess, because it was a heavy, wet snow with some mixing/ice in the middle of the storm. Sure looks nice, though.
- Beginnings
Saw my first song sparrow of the year in the yard on Sunday. I’d been hearing them for a week or so.
- Flora, Fauna, Fungi
Nature photos from the trip we took to Rye, Portsmouth, and Salisbury:
Some of what we and Merlin heard on our trip — more than 30 species listed here.
Bird photos from home
- Wandering
Quite a lot of wandering this week.
We walked at the bog on Monday, and I took in-town walks on Friday (almost 4 miles) and on Sunday for 1.25 hours.
Bog
Around town on Sunday
We were away for our anniversary in Rye & Portsmouth, NH, and Salisbury, MA, from Tuesday through Thursday, exploring beaches, Odiorne Point State Park, and some new trails including the Urban Forestry Center trails and Sagamore Creek Headlands trails, both along Sagamore Creek in Rye/Portsmouth. Both Tues. and Thurs. were very windy and chilly, but Wednesday was warmish and quite nice.
Some off-season tourist-town pics (heterotopia!), in Salisbury MA and Hampton Beach, NH:
Also, this in a Salisbury (MA) Beach Pavilion window … “The only survivor was the ship’s cat”
Other photos from the trip (see also Flora Fauna Fungi section above):
Food! While away, we ate lunch at a new spot, Seaglass Restaurant and Lounge in Salisbury, MA, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, on the recommendation of friends (it was great), and enjoyed another wonderful meal at Atlantic Grill in Rye one evening (both restaurants were only about 20-30% full at the times we were there). We also got takeout from Shalimar Indian restaurant in Portsmouth to bring home (and eat the rest of the week). We made simple lunches and breakfasts or had leftovers from the restaurants so I didn’t really have to cook this week.
- Curiosity & Discoveries
This Buddha altar was a sweet find on the Urban Forestry trails abutting the Sagamore Creek in Rye. Can you spot the second tiny Buddha head?
- Creating
Hmmm … besides some digital collages, not much.
- Repairing and Maintaining (everything but the house)
Body/Mind: I’m not sleeping well lately, awake a lot, and even when I feel like I sleep well my score is lower than I expect. Worked out only once (Monday) this week — but walked a lot, over 10,000 steps on six days, including over 13,000 steps on three. Missed both my regularly scheduled webinars this week because we were away.
Cat: The cat did fine with the cat-sitter from Tuesday morning through Thursday afternoon. Since then, he’s been hanging very close.
Yard: My husband cleared about a foot of snow from our driveway on Saturday and then another foot, which was icier and heavier, on Sunday morning. We’ve had the birdfeeders up when we can see them from the family room during the day (so only two of the four have been hung in the last week or so), taking them all down by nightfall, and have finally stopped hanging them at all with bear reports and slightly warmer temps now.
Finances: We received the last tax form we needed, which I delivered to our tax person on Friday; taxes will be ready for signing and submitting next week.
- Nesting: Design/Decor, Maintenance, Supplies, Food, etc.
Nesting: We nested in this retro motel in Rye for three days. This king suite (which we booked on a 50%-off sale last fall) is 600 square feet!
Food: I didn’t have to make any dinners this week, what with being away and eating leftovers.
Cleaning/Maintaining: I watered the houseplants on Tuesday.
Supplies: Bought a pair of summer pants and a summer sleeveless top from an Eddie Bauer Outlet in Kittery, Maine, on Thursday at 70% off. Ordered a supply of ibuprofen and generic Tylenol on Friday. Our Amazon Subscribe & Save arrived on the 21st through the 24th, including canned tuna, a bag of cat food, mouthwash, shaving cream.
- Sleeping & Dreaming
As mentioned above, I’m not sleeping all that well lately. I started out strong with a 93 score on Sunday night and it’s been downhill since. My average sleep score this week was 84, with the high of 93 on Sun. night and a low of 77 on Friday night. I slept the most on Sunday night, 8 hours and 41 mins, and the least on Thursday night, 6 hours 55 mins. My average sleeping time was 7 hours and 41 mins. I recorded three very vivid dreams on Monday morning.
- Reading / Words & Ideas / Listening / Watching
⨠ I read and appreciated this essay on grief by Mari Andrew in her newsletter, Out of the Blue, this week. I like her drawings related to it, too:
⨠ Because we’re heading toward a solar maximum, with sun activity peaking between now and some time in 2025, probably, I’ve been reading a lot about solar storms and their effects here on Earth. This article, What a Major Solar Storm Could Do to Our Planet by Kathryn Schulz (26 Feb 2024) in The New Yorker is really clear and well-explained (may require subscription).
⨠ I’ve almost finished reading Barbara Hurd’s Stirring the Mud: On Swamps, Bogs, and Human Imagination (2008), which is a glorious read about nature, poetry, identity, and more. Recommended.
⨠ A perhaps useful chart, if a bit basic:
- Connections & Community
Local Support: We ate out at (or got takeout from) three independently owned restaurants on our brief getaway this week, in Rye, Portsmouth, and Salisbury. We bought items through Too Good To Go from our local bakery on Sunday.
Relationships: Zoomed with college friends in Baltimore on Friday evening for two hours of catching-up before they take a 2-week trip out west. I missed the permaculture meeting because I was away, but made it to the in-person Salon on Friday afternoon — there were five of us in person and one on Zoom from Colorado, plus brief phone calls with another member currently in Alabama and the (local) daughter of a member who was present.
We had a friend here for tea on Friday afternoon, when she walked over to give us some bird seed they weren’t going to be using. The daughter of a friend who died a year ago sent me a really nice email on Saturday. Ordered flowers on Thursday to be delivered to a friend (my sister’s good friend) for her birthday on Sunday. Sent my nephew an e-gift card for his birthday on Sunday.
We drove friends to the park & ride for a bus to a plane on Monday around 1 p.m., and then that night around 11 p.m. we picked up some other friends from the park & ride who were returning from their trip. It’s so convenient to have the park & ride close by. Husband helped fix neighbour’s snowblower and helped clear their driveway on Sunday; in return, they gave us a lovely package of peanut butter patties.
My brother-in-law got good results from his bone marrow biopsy on Wednesday. A friend suddenly had episodes of Afib and was hospitalised (in Maine) this week and I kept in touch by text with her. Another friend had mouth surgery (related to her car accident in Dec.) on Friday morning, which went well; we’ve texted and emailed a few times since.
- Endings
- All This Useless Beauty
Just budding here in the middle of the woods —
Who comes up with these colours, this light?
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