A Moveable Garden

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

• Weather

It’s been hot and dry this week, especially the latter part. We’ve received a little over a tenth of an inch of rain, so I’ve been watering veggies and new plants every day. The average high temperature was 83.1°F, with a range from 87.4 °F to 74.8°F, and the average low temp was 60.6°F, ranging from 51.6°F to 69.6°F. We turned on the bedroom window A/C today.

• Beginnings/Firsts

I sent out the June/July nature photos links to my email list on Monday.

The first shelling peapod in the garden was ready to eat on Tuesday and I bought my first peas from the local farmstand on Wed. First monarch butterfly in the yard on Friday (no pic). First raspberry harvest also on Friday. Corn on the cob (from Hadley, Mass.) was available at the farmstand on Saturday.

I planted basil and two sunflowers (Astro Gold and Crème Brûlée) a friend gave me on Monday.

• Wild Flora, Fauna, Fungi

Some of the wild things this week

And some birds heard in the garden, in town, and at the lake this week.

• Wandering & Exploring

We were in Boston all day Tuesday for a medical appointment at MGH, and we also visited the New England Aquarium for an hour, walked on the Rose Kennedy Greenway, and had lunch at Ma Maison while there. (I have mixed feelings about the aquarium but we’re members, mainly to support the conservation and rescue mission, and I enjoy spending some time there.)

Boston

Besides a fair amount of walking in Boston, I took a short walk on Monday, longer walks on Friday and Sat., and longer walks still (or multiple walks) on Wed., Thursday (including a solo walk at the lake), and Sunday. In all, I walked over 12,000 steps every day this week and over 14,000 steps on four days.

Lake

• Curiosity & Discoveries

Look who I discovered behind some tall blue lettuce that I was about to pull out on Friday: A sweet gray treefrog (Dryophytes versicolor). Adorbs.

• Creating

Did very little on the cat photo book for my sister. Next week? Being outside is too tempting!

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

Body/Mind: I had bloodwork done on Monday and my husband had a medical appointment on Tuesday. I worked out 3 times (3 hours) this week and walked a lot. I tested negative for Covid on Wed. I meditated and participated in Dharma Sunday (via Zoom) for 2+ hours; the topic was “Holding the light in the dark and the dark in the light.”

Cat: The cat had his nails clipped at the vet on Wednesday morning and I cleaned his litter box completely and set up another one (we keep trying to interest him in using the litterbox that’s not in our bedroom/bathroom) on Friday.

• Gardening/Yard 

I spent about six hours in the garden this week, watering, weeding, pruning, and harvesting. We saw our first monarch butterfly in the yard on Friday!

This week I harvested more garlic scapes (where were they hiding the first two times??), peas (twice, on Thursday and Sunday, totaling 50 or 60 pods), a handful of sungold tomatoes, kale, arugula, and my husband collected raspberries and either blackberries or some other kind of small black berry that grows on canes like a blackberry (we hadn’t noticed them in our yard before).

A friend who lives nearby checked her garlic this week and they’re not quite ready for harvesting; I’ll pull one of ours next week to see how they’re coming along. We’re almost finished with last year’s garlic!

This week’s garden

• Nesting 

Food: I made a spicy garlic and garlic scape shrimp with linguine dish on Monday, with sautéed broccolini, and we had it on Tuesday night with fresh local spinach added to the linguini dish. Wednesday I made tuna Niçoise salad, which we also had on Friday night, with local cukes. Thursday — U.S. Independence Day — was grilled hot dogs (soy/beef) with corn, local peas, and leftover French fries from Tuesday’s lunch, and Saturday was also grilled hot dogs, with local (Mass.) corn on the cob and mac & cheese. Sunday I made tuna salad, which we ate on local romaine lettuce.

Supplies: I don’t think I ordered anything this week or stocked up on anything (other than fresh peas).

Cleaning/Maintaining: My husband replaced the washing machine’s tub base on Friday.

My husband cleaned the two air purifiers on Monday (a monthly thing). I did clothes laundry on Wed. and my husband went to the dump that day.

• Sleeping & Dreaming

Sleep varied. My Fitbit scores ranged widely from 71 to 90, with an average score of 81. I got 7 hours and 8 minutes of sleep on average this week, with one night of 5-1/2 hours and another of almost 8-1/2 hours. I had 13 hours 4 mins of REM sleep and 8 hours 48 mins of deep sleep.

• Reading / Words & Ideas / Listening / Watching  

BOOKS: I finished Sociopath: A Memoir (2024) by Patric Gagne this week and then started The Years (2008) by Annie Ernaux, a ‘hybrid’ memoir described by her publisher as an autobiography that’s “at once subjective and impersonal, private and collective.” I like them both. Sociopath has had some harsh treatment at Goodreads and in other reviews, with Gagne’s credentials (she has a Ph.D. next to her name and is a therapist) and her diagnosis both seriously questioned (most think she’s more likely on the autism spectrum than sociopathic). I just read the book as one woman’s take on her experience of life, the way her mind works, how she makes sense of it through the psychiatric lens.

The Years is set in France from 1941 to 2006; I’m up to the 1980s now, and it’s taking longer than you’d think because I’m looking up most of the French phrases as well as the events, people, news stories, crimes, assassinations, and many cultural references she mentions. Some are completely unfamiliar to me while others I’ve heard of but don’t remember or never knew much about. A couple of pages (not contiguous) from the book:

She also talks about her own life in terms of photographs situated in a time and place, and she touches on the idea of memory as ephemeral, mortal. It’s interesting to me.

It was a bit odd reading Sociopath and the reviews at the same time I read this article in The Cut, “What My Adult Autism Diagnosis Finally Explained: I’d long suspected something was ‘off.’ Then, at 43, an unexpected answer arrived” by Mary H.K. Choi. There are definitely points of connection between the two diagnoses, particularly a sense of apathy or a lack of strong emotions.

The essay “Everything ‘That Friend’ Wants You to Know About Covid: We’re scratching the surface” by Jessica Wildfire (OK Doomer) is a really good wrap-up of the damage that we already know Covid-19 causes, how it ages our bodies and minds, worse with every infection, and many infections are asymptomatic. (Yes, I am that friend.)

A few other things I collected this week that spoke to me:

• Connections &  Community 

Local Support: Several trips to the farmstand this week, for peas, corn on the cob, cukes, green beans, and yellow squash, all grown on site except the corn, which came from Hadley, Mass., about 100 miles away.

We ate outside at the local bakery/café on Thursday and I ate there with a friend on Friday. We also bought Too Good To Go bags from the same place, on Wed. and Sunday. And of course we ate outside at Ma Maison in Boston on Tuesday.

We also bought donuts at the local Blackbird Doughnut shop there. And I bought iced teas (it was hot) at both flour bakery + café and Tatte Bakery & Café.

Relationships: Neither permaculture group nor Salon met this week due to the holiday. Instead, I had lunch with a friend (RL) on Friday for 2 hours outside at a local café, and another mutual friend (LM) joined us for about an hour there. Two friends (ED & RL) came over on Monday to pick up sunflower plants left by another of our friends (MAB) the day before. I talked by phone with a good friend whom I’ve known since college (RVN) for an hour on Tuesday, and with my sister on Friday (her birthday) and Saturday for a total of about an hour. I sent another college friend a birthday ecard on Sat. On Tuesday while we were out walking four or five friends/neighbours waved, yelled hello, or stopped to talk with us, and I ran into some other friends on Sat. while walking. My friend (LM) picked up some items for me while shopping at the regional co-op on Sunday.

• Endings/Harvest

As mentioned above, my husband harvested berries and I harvested kale, arugula, peas, garlic scapes, and tomatoes this week.

• All This Useless Beauty

This leafhopper. Those colours.

This bee balm, before it even blooms.

Some watercolours at a local bakery.

This light on a short walk after dinner one night just got to me.