Weekly recap of my ritual of existence in this liminal space called life. (See here for more info.)
- Weather
Seasonal weather this week: High temperatures ranged from 69.1°F to 48.4°F, with a weekly high temp average of 58.2°F. Lows ranged from 24.3°F to 41.7°F for an average low temp of 30.3°F. We got a little rain on Wednesday and more on Sunday, totalling about 1/2 inch, giving the yard a chance to dry out a bit before I start planting.
The reappearance of our neighbour’s ceramic sheep signifies the start of true spring.
- Beginnings
Definitely saw two different loons on the lake on Sunday, next to each other. Here’s one.
Merlin (and we) heard yellow-rumped warblers and blue-headed vireos for the first time this year at the lake on Sunday.
We heard Spring peepers (Pseudacris crucifer), a small frog that sings in choruses in vernal pools, in town for the first time this year on Saturday evening while taking a walk (it had hit almost 64°F degrees that day). You can hear them, too.
- Wild Flora, Fauna, Fungi
Besides what’s show in other sections:
And birds Merlin heard in the yard, at the lake, or otherwise hereabouts this week:
- Wandering
Walked in town on Tuesday (to check on the killdeer);
on Thursday (to check on the trout lily colony);
on Friday to the bakery and farmstand; on Saturday to recycle a little styrofoam at a special styrofoam recycling event, and to place some shells on headstones at the cemetery;
and then around the lake on Sunday.
I also walked in Concord for about 45 mins after jury duty on Tuesday.
- Curiosity & Discoveries
Jury duty on Tuesday was quite interesting, as I was able to observe the intricacies of jury selection for a criminal trial this time. One surprising thing was that of the 40 or so people they called for voir dire, three knew the judge or one of the attorneys too well to serve, and the parents of the woman sitting next to me sometimes work for the judge doing home repairs and construction at his house (but that was deemed to have no bearing and she was chosen anyway).
- Creating
Yeah, right.
- Repairing and Maintaining (everything but the house & yard)
Body/Mind: I worked out 4 times (4 hours) this week and walked over 10,000 steps (per FitBit) on six days, with two days over 14,000 steps. I got my hair cut (masked) early on Thursday morning.
I attended the last regular Zoom session of Botany in a Winter on Wed. evening (six or seven more classes will be scheduled during spring and summer) and a good Zoom talk on Friday afternoon about tree ID on Cape Cod.
- Gardening/Yard
My husband cleaned up some pruning done last fall and some newly cut branches and limbs this week, on Saturday and Sunday. I have done absolutely nothing in the yard yet except look at it.
Some of what’s up in the garden:
- Nesting
Food: All Indian all the time here this week, with jury duty in Concord on Tuesday, only a few blocks from the Indian restaurant. I picked up takeout for us and friends, and our takeout took us from Tuesday night thru Sunday (and beyond!), although by Sat. my husband had run out of his meal and ate other food that night and Sunday, including a ham flatbread included in the Too Good To Go bag from the bakery/café, some macaroni salad I made earlier in the week, and a deli chicken and cheese baguette sandwich, plus bell peppers.
Cleaning/Maintenance: On Sunday, I cleaned the windows between the kitchen (above the sink) and the sunroom, which were filthy. On Tuesday, I cleaned the guest toilet and sink and did towel laundry. I did clothes laundry on Friday. No doubt we ran the robotic vacuum and I’m sure I cleaned our bathroom toilet at least once, too. My husband made a trip to the dump on Thursday.
Supplies: Amazon Subscribe & Save stuff arrived on Monday, including vitamin D3, multivitamins, deluxe mixed nuts, NyQuil, 10 FlowFlex Covid tests, papadums, shower soap, and face cream. I ordered a red fleece top on eBay on Tuesday.
- Sleeping & Dreaming
Very variable sleeping times, from 8 hours 53 mins to 5 hours 47 mins, with a nightly average this week of 7 hours 25 mins, and an average score of 84 (two 91s and two 75s were the extremes). No dreams recorded.
- Reading / Words & Ideas / Listening / Watching
Books: I finished reading Girls (1997) by Frederick Busch, a very dark and melancholic novel with two main plots, both involving harm to children; and the frothy The Good, the Bad, and the Aunties (2024) by Jesse Q. Sutanto, the last in her Aunties series; this one was focused hard on the prospect of the newlyweds having a child, but once the aunties’ criminal mayhem got going the plot improved.
Pretty but by no means comprehensive chart (from Better Homes & Gardens):
- Connections & Community
Local support: We ate outside at a local bakery/café on Saturday morning; we also bought treats from the same place on Thursday to take home and got a Too Good To Go bag from them on Friday.
As mentioned earlier, I bought a quantity of Indian food from a local independent place in Concord on Tuesday, and I also picked up some tea at the local co-op there.
Relationships: On Tues., we picked up Indian food for friends and that night we picked up other friends from the bus at the park & ride. On Wed. afternoon, a friend who’s undergoing chemo came over for four hours to chat about classical music with my husband, giving his wife a small break from his steroid-excited brain. 🙂 (He told us a very interesting story!) A friend had a second opinion on Thursday re potential surgery and I checked in with her about it; I also sent her a longish email on Wed. I ordered a gift card and sent a digital birthday card to my nephew who turned 34 this week. Talked with my sister on the phone for 20 mins on Wed. afternoon. Ran into our catsitter on a walk on Friday and chatted for a bit.
Permaculture met on Zoom with six of us on Thursday morning, and Salon met in person for three members and on Zoom for one (me, due to having had possible germ exposure during jury duty) on Friday afternoon. We lent some muffin tins to neighbours on Sat. (which they returned along with some delicious muffins on Sunday!).
- Endings
I finished my jury duty on Tuesday (after a previous day in the jury pool on 9 April), without my name ever being called for consideration, so I didn’t actually serve on a jury. As mentioned above, it was really interesting though to observe two jury selections, one for a civil case and one for a criminal case, and to listen to the details, questions, and conversation among the lawyers, judge, and sometimes, the prospective jurors.
- All This Useless Beauty
Cat photoshoot on Friday.
