Weekly recap of my ritual of existence in this liminal space called life. (See here for more info.)
- Weather
Weather continues to chill. I wasn’t home in NH most of this week but my husband says the heat came on one night. The average high temperature was 61.7°F, ranging from 67.5°F to 54.5°F. The average low was 48.3°F, ranging from 42.8°F to 52.3°F (on two nights). We had rain on Wed. and Thurs, totalling just about 3 inches, which is much needed (even as other parts of the country are inundated).
While I was at Rehoboth Beach, DE, from 22-27 Sept., the high temperatures there ranged from 70°F to 80°F, the lows from 54°F to 71°F, and Rehoboth got .13 inches of rain, most of it sprinkling and much less than expected.
- Beginnings/Firsts
This was my first week at Rehoboth Beach this year! And my first train trip this year. And my first time seeing my sister in person this year. A good week.
- Wild Things (Flora, Fauna, Fungi)
(Other wild things also shown below.)
special showcase of the tricoloured heron
and the green heron
more wild things at the beach & in the marsh
- Wandering
I walked the beach every day from Monday through Friday, sometimes alone, sometimes with my sister, sometimes with my friends. I picked up my rental bike when the place opened at 9 on Monday morning and biked from then through Thursday, when I returned my bike to the rental place. I tooled around a little in town and on the boardwalk (open to bikes during the day after 15 Sept!) but mostly on the Gordon’s Pond bike (and walking) trail in Cape Henlopen State Park.
On Monday, I biked with my friends to Herring Point (1.5 hours). On Tuesday and Thursday, my sister and I biked, to Fort Miles one day (2.5 hours) and Herring Point with a side ride in North Shores by the Bidens’ house (2 hours) on another. On Wed., I biked with my friends to The Point, in Lewes, where we saw the ship spotting facility and some brown pelicans, and we also biked through the campground where they often stay (total of 2 hours 15 mins).
I’ve tried to mark the route(s), in blue, on these maps.
The first map shows the route from intown (we started below where the map shows), along the boardwalk, through North Shores, into the park and along Gordons Pond bike trail through the marsh and to Herring Point and beyond.
The second map picks up where the first one leaves off, just beyond Herring Point, past the campground on the left and Fort Miles on the right, past the Hawk Watch area and to The Point, in Lewes.
Here’s some of what I saw … (see also Wild Things and Curiosities & Discoveries)
on and near the beaches
on the bike trail / at the marsh
- Curiosities & Discoveries
The biggest surprise for me, among many this week, was to see a roseate spoonbill in Delaware. I remember when they were uncommon at Jekyll Island, GA (the first breeding pair recorded there was in 2011). This bird, according to people with large expensive cameras whom I talked with on the bike path, has been around for at least three weeks and has been the only one of its species seen, often in the company of great egrets, as shown below. Researching online I see that these birds have recently (since 2018 at least) been found far beyond their usual range, including in northern New England. My camera is small and the bird was in a far-off tree but the roseate spoonbill is easy to ID even in bad pics.
Something I never seen in NH, though I know they’re here, is a praying mantis, and I saw at least six or eight of them on the bike path over the several days I rode and walked there. (They don’t blend.) I moved two off to the side before other bikes came along to potentially squish them. Curiously, the one on the left was ID’d at iNat as Chinese Mantis (Tenodera sinensis) and the one on the right as European Mantis (Mantis religiosa). They do look different but we all know how the camera angle changes everything.
- Creating
Hey, I’ve been busy.
- Repairing and Maintaining (everything but the house & yard)
Body/Mind: I got a lot of biking and walking in this week, with 5 days (all beach days) over 20,000 steps, of which three were over 25,000 steps. No weight workouts, though. I participated in a hybrid Dharma Sunday sangha from Wonderwell with Liz Monson via Zoom, with dyads, meditation, teaching, and discussion on resilience, balance, and community.
- Gardening/Yard
My husband mowed the lawn on Wednesday. I wasn’t here to do much in the garden other than on Sunday the 29th, but my husband harvested and ate cherry tomatoes while I was gone and I harvested some tomatoes, a final jalapeño pepper, kale, and a bunch of parsley on Sunday. The Sweet Millions tomato vines growing from the compost are now completely feral.
a few pics from garden this week
- Nesting
Cleaning/Maintaining: I wasn’t home most of the week but did one small load of clothes laundry in my friends’ cottage washer and dryer on Monday. My husband, at home, again cleaned the filthy dishwasher, this time using bleach, and it looks much much better. He also ran several loads of sheets and comforter laundry after the cat threw up on the bed while I was away (ate a bit of a cut hydrangea, we think). I did clothes laundry and ran errands when I got home, on Sunday, and my husband made a dump run.
Supplies: I fiddled with the Chewy S&S which is set to ship on 3 Oct. I ordered the latest round of 4 free Covid tests from the U.S. government while relaxing on the beach Thursday. My sister supplied us with 24+ cans of seltzer waters for our time at the beach.
- Sleeping & Dreaming
Sleep again was not optimal. I am a night owl and I was sharing a hotel room with a morning person who automatically awakens at about 7 a.m. I slept an average of 7 hours 8 mins this week, with a FitBit sleep score of 81. I had 13 hours of REM sleep and 9 hours 23 minutes of deep sleep. So actually, it was slightly better than last week, but my times and scores are misleadingly raised by my sleep on Saturday night at home, which was almost 9 hours (with both REM and deep each over 2 hours) for a 92 score; otherwise, my scores ranged from 73 to 83, with times from 6 hours 13 mins to 7 hours 23 minutes.
- Reading / Words & Ideas / Listening / Watching
READING
BOOKS: Finished Conviction (2019) by Denise Mina on the train ride home from Baltimore/beach. Really enjoyed this interesting suspense novel that begins, for the reader, when suburban wife Anna, living in Glasgow, Scotland, starts to listen to a new true crime podcast that features someone from her past on the same morning her husband Hamish announces he’s leaving her for her best friend, Estelle, and taking their two girls with him. Soon Anna and Estelle’s anorexic musician husband, Fin, are on the run throughout Scotland and then throughout France, listening to the rest of the podcast as Anna’s secrets unfold one by one and they both try to keep one step ahead of the people trying to kill them.
WATCHING
My friends and sister and I made negronis and watched the latest two episodes of “Only Murders” on Wednesday night after a late lunch/early dinner at Henlopen City Oyster House. Fun!
LISTENING
An odd little selection of music at Drift restaurant on Monday, at Henlopen City Oyster House on Wed., in the hotel lobby where I was staying in with my sister on Thurs., in my friends’ car on our drive back to Baltimore on Friday, and in the train station in Baltimore on Saturday morning.
- Connections & Community
Local Support: My friends, sister, and I supported several local Rehoboth restaurants this week, including Drift (twice), Obie’s (twice), Henlopen City Oyster House (a favourite), The Back Porch, Kiwi Tiki Bar, Dreamer Juice (a smoothie place), and Double Dippers ice cream. It was so nice that we could eat outside at all but one of them. A few pics from these wonderful spots:
Also got takeout food (falafel burger and shore fries for me) from Fuzzies Burgers, a local food truck in Baltimore, on Friday night. And my husband and I had takeout pizza (spinach, artichoke, olive) and green salad from a local place when I got home on Saturday evening.
Relationships: Spent most of the week with my sister and two college friends at the beach! That was my focus. Also got to spend a little time with my friend’s aunt and cousin on Monday at their (sumptuous!) rental beach house, and with my friends’ son and his family at their house on Friday afternoon when we got back to Baltimore. And met a nice couple from their Charles Village neighbourhood at the food truck on Friday night. Friends here at home brought my husband some sausage & bean soup and cornbread while I was gone, which was thoughtful.
- Endings/Harvests
The beach vacation ended. Sad face.
My husband harvested some tomatoes while I was away and I harvested kale, parsley, the last jalapeño, and more tomatoes from the garden when I got home.
- All This Useless Beauty
an old mailbox in Rehoboth
my friends’ Baltimore rowhouse block
early fall in small town New Hampshire
the evening boardwalk (8:30 p.m.)
this gorgeous piece of Earth
Leave a Reply