A Moveable Garden

Weekly recap of my ritual of existence in this liminal space called life. (See here for more info.)

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• Weather

Weather was springy, fitting for the last full week of the season, before a heatwave is forecast to hit next week. The high temperatures ranged from 80.6°F to 66.2°F, averaging 72.8°F, while the lows averaged 51.4°F, ranging from 42.4°F to 61.3°F. It was windy on Friday night into Saturday. We didn’t get much rain, only .14 inches.

• Beginnings/Firsts

• Wild Flora, Fauna, Fungi

• Wandering 

I took a longish walk (4 miles) in town on Monday and ran some errands on the way. We were back in Boston for another medical appointment on Tuesday. We didn’t walk or explore much but did have lunch from the hospital cafeteria outside on the patio, where we people-watched (and bird-watched). We took a short walk after dinner on Wed. Thursday, I walked about 2 miles in town, and Friday I walked to Salon. We went to The Fells on Saturday, where I walked around the gardens and trails for an hour or so, and Sunday I took two shorter walks in town.

The Fells

Other walks, wanderings

• Curiosity & Discoveries

Really like these flowers installed in a commercial garden in town. I asked on Facebook what they might be, as PlantNet and Lens were not much help, and the most likely guess seems to be Proven Winners ‘Ringo All-Star’ shrub rose.

This particular purple baptisia always grows these little yellow flowers on it, year after year. I don’t know if it’s a feature, a mutation, a disease, or what.

• Creating

Nada.

• Repairing and Maintaining (everything but the house & yard) 

Body/Mind: I worked out 3 hours this week and walked more than 10,000 steps every day but one this week, including four days over 14,000 steps. I gardened for 8-9 hours, watering most days, planting on two days, pruning and weeding on several days, and mowing and collecting cuttings piles. Continued checking blood pressure periodically and had a negative Covid test on Friday.

• Gardening/Yard 

My husband mowed the front and side yard on Wednesday and I mowed the back yard on Thursday evening. I picked up plants I’d ordered from a local native plant nursery in January on Wednesday and planted all of them during 2.5 hours in the garden that afternoon: 3 large dense liatris and 6 small green-headed echinacea, as well as some annuals — 12 zinnia, 12 Mexican sunflowers, and 6 cosmos. I squeezed them in where I could!

I also pruned the weeping crabapple quite a bit to allow more sunlight to the plants I’d just settled under/near it and I picked up weed piles scattered around the yard.

On Thursday I spent 2 hours in the garden, planting cilantro seeds (the first batch never came up) and scarlet runner beans a friend gave me, and watering and weeding. Gardened for 2.5 hours on Sunday, watering and pruning mostly.

The compost is looking good!

What’s happening in the garden this week:

• Nesting 

Cleaning/Maintenance: On Monday I vacuumed for an hour and did a load of clothes laundry. I watered the houseplants on Thursday. The plumber came on Friday morning to install the new on-demand hot water heater. My husband installed the air conditioner in our bedroom on Sunday, pre-heatwave.

We took stuff to the dump and the broken hot water heater (after husband had torn it apart to investigate it) to the metal dump on Sunday.

Food: I made penne with chives, pine nuts, asparagus, and shrimp on Monday, which we also had Tuesday.

We grilled hot dogs (beef/soy) on Wed., which we had with asparagus and mac & cheese. On Thurs., we ordered Chinese, which we had for the rest of the week’s dinners along with cukes and peppers.

Supplies: I ordered CoCoFloss toothpaste on Tuesday; macadamias, dried apricots, and little snack bars from Nuts.com on Friday; and I set up a 2nd Chewy autoship for the cat on Sunday.

• Sleeping & Dreaming

I slept an average of 7.26 hours this week, with a high one night of 9 hours 5 mins and three nights of 6-1/2 hours or so. My average FitBit sleep score was 83, with a high of 91 and a low of 76. I got a little more than 12 hours of REM sleep, including over 3 hours one night, and 8-1/2 hours of deep sleep. Lots of vivid dreams, unsurprisingly with all the REM sleep, including some about my friend Annie who died last October.

• Reading / Words & Ideas / Listening / Watching  

I came across this, Seamus Heaney’s “Field of Vision,” in John Naughton’s Memex 1.1 newsletter this week:

This amused me and at the same time seems quite insightful:

Some new words this week, both from Brookner’s novel Latecomers (1988) : Fauvism and girandoles

• Connections &  Community 

Local Support: Bought goodies from local bakery on Wednesday and a Too Good To Go bag from them on Friday. We ate outside there on Sunday. We ate lunch outside at the local country club restaurant on Saturday.

Bought some items at the local co-op on Monday. We ordered takeout from the local Chinese restaurant on Thursday. Bought fruit and veg at local farmstand on Thursday and Sunday.

Relationships: Permaculture group met by Zoom on Thursday (7 of us), and Salon met in person on Friday (all 6 of us locals). I walked through our Salon host’s garden afterward and took photos of her peonies.

Chatted with neighbour on Monday while on a walk and again (same neighbour) on Wed. evening while on another walk. A friend (R) drove us to and from the park & ride on Tuesday for our bus trip to Boston. With another friend, helped a young girl who fell off her bike and was bleeding on Friday. Checked on a friend/neighbour on Sunday evening at his daughter’s request. Lots of texting.

• Endings 

Harvested more chives this week.

Friends bought a condo 45 minutes away from us and have their house here on the market, a sad ending for us but a happy beginning for them. Another friend, who lives in downeast Maine, bought a condo this week that’s about an hour from us, bringing her closer to us over the winter.

• All This Useless Beauty

The cat was pretty magnificent this week.

This cutleaf goatsbeard (Aruncus dioicus ‘Kneiffii’), in the shade garden.

The grandeur of this elegantly faded Trollius ‘Superba’ (globeflower).

The evening marsh.

Do we live in a painting?