A Moveable Garden

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

• Weather

Fairly cold and pretty windy this week. AND we got our first big snowfall, a heavy wet snow, on Thanksgiving, of about nine inches. High temperatures ranged from 42.3°F to 33.1°F, averaging 35.5°F, and lows ranged from 23°F to 29.5°F, averaging 26°F. Next week looks to be colder, then a warm up into the upper 30s and lower 40s for at least the next two weeks after that.

• Beginnings/Firsts

First big snow on Thursday! We put up the Christmas wreath on Saturday! My sister got a new pacemaker on Wednesday! My other sister started a new spin around the sun on Saturday! We signed up for a BritBox trial on Sunday! I started a virtual sit Advent meditation series with Richard Rohr’s Center for Action and Contemplation on Sunday!

• Wild Things (Flora, Fauna, Fungi)

On the motion camera this week: deer, possum, squirrel (also fox, but photos mostly a blur; also our neighbor’s black lab and then the neighbour, trying to get him)

• Wandering 

We walked around the lake (3 miles) on Monday, the warmest day of the week. We didn’t go out on Tuesday due to freezing rain. On Wed., I took a long walk, ending up at a consignment store pop-up Christmas shoppe (bought nothing there but bought a few items from local sources on the way). Thursday and Sunday we vegged at home. Friday we walked to the farmstand (bought nothing), Saturday I walked in town for about an hour.

lake walk

We see the wandering cat (second row) fairly often on this walk.

other walks

Don’t know what the yellow bird (3rd pic) is. Cornell and iNat not helpful this time.

consignment store

• Curiosity & Discoveries

This was unexpected, in our local grocery on Friday. It is decidedly not spring here.

• Creating

I created more personalised Xmas gifts on Monday, this time through Etsy. I added some doodads to the Christmas wreath we bought from our neighbours’ granddaughter’s school.

• Repairing and Maintaining (everything but the house & yard) – body/mind, cat, vehicles

Body/Mind: I worked out four times (4 hours) this week. Also walked over 10,000 steps on five days, including two over 14,000 steps, and I walked on the treadmill for 4 miles on Monday and Tuesday (included in the step count). I tested negative for Covid on Friday. I participated in the virtual sit for Advent (silent meditation, with a few minutes of teaching on either side of it) with about 2,000 other people worldwide online on Sunday for about 40 minutes.

Vehicles: My husband changed the oil in the Jeep on Saturday.

• Gardening/Yard 

My husband bleached the three older birdfeeders on Sunday and we hung a new one (that didn’t need bleaching) that day. We’re bringing the feeder(s) in at 4 p.m.ish. He also cleared the snow from the driveway on Thanksgiving afternoon.

Part of the vegetable garden about halfway into the Thanksgiving snow:

• Nesting 

Cleaning/Maintenance: I vacuumed the family room, hallway, and kitchen on Sunday. I did clothes and towel laundry this week but forgot to write down when. On Sunday I changed the sheets — the ones on the bed (grey flannel) are quite old and had been patched but the fitted sheet was in tatters, so that will become rags, while the pillow cases and top sheet may find other uses. I put lovely velvelty soft flannel sheets in “Atlantic Blue” on the bed; I’d bought them from The Company Store in June (they’re no longer available in Queen in this colour). Very enjoyable. The cat helped.

My husband cleaned the air purifier filters on Sunday. He also fixed a light switch on Wednesday; luckily and unsurprisingly, he had an assortment of spares on hand, and he also figured out what was wrong with the broken one and now it’s ready for future use.

Food: Leftovers and veggie burgers with sautéed fresh spinach and rice pilaf on Mon. and Tues. Wednesday we had canned Progresso soups and grilled cheese sandwiches, after I had made a potato-leek gratin, cole slaw, and tartar sauce earlier in the day for the next day’s dinner. Thursday, Thanksgiving, I made crab cakes, served with the tartar sauce, the gratin, the cole slaw, and a grüner veltliner white wine. For dessert we had pumpkin pie that my husband made on Tuesday, when he also made sourdough crumpets. Friday we had dinner at friends’, and Sat. and Sun. we finished the Thanksgiving leftovers.

We had scrambled eggs, sausage (regular and soy), mimosas, and coffee/tea for Thankgiving breakfast.

Supplies: My husband ordered a cord of firewood on Monday. I did a bunch of Christmas gift ordering this week, plus I bought more Christmas teas for us (we’re running low already). My bulk order of artichoke hearts was delivered on Monday.

• Sleeping & Dreaming

Sleep was so-so. I actually felt I slept pretty well but my FitBit sleep score was only 84.9. I got an average of 7 hours 13 mins of sleep per night this week, with a high of 8 hours 5 mins and a low of 6 hours 20 mins. REM sleep accounted for 11.5 hours, deep for just about 8 hours. I love dreaming.

• Reading / Words & Ideas / Listening / Watching  

Reading

BOOKS: I finished A Talent for Murder (2024) by Peter Swanson this week. It’s a creepy novel about a psychopath who is amassing kills to show himself and everyone else (eventually) how clever he is. Martha, a librarian in southern Maine, marries Alan, who goes on a lot of business trips. After a few unsettling things come to light, she begins to wonder if his presence in towns at the same time that women are murdered there isn’t coincidental. She enlists the help of college friend Lily, who once helped her get rid of a dangerous boyfriend, to do some investigating, with chilling results.

OTHER

** This is a really interesting essay on exactly what the title says: My mind transformed completely, and there were some tradeoffs, by Sasha Chapin. Here’s a taste: “I can still narrativize about past and future, but the narratives are obviously illusory thought-wisps, making up part of the stagecraft of the present moment, not reflective of any truthful prognostication or recollection. They have the same truth value as birdsong — neither true nor untrue.”

** A couple of possibly useful health PSAs, one on avian flu symptoms (from a Canadian source) and the other on ways to protect ourselves and others from Covid (and the first three precautions will help keep other germs at bay, too).

Watching

We finished re-watching the 1949 film Holiday Affair, with Robert Mitchum and Janet Leigh, on Thanksgiving. It’s a fun (also a bit sad at times) Christmasy movie. I watched about an hour of the Hallmark Christmas movie A Very Merry Mix-up while treadmilling on Monday but I’m not sufficiently invested.

Listening

Some things I heard this week on local radio and online on FIP-Paris radio. Yes, obviously I went to Whamhalla early on in the season (reference: Whamageddon)

• Connections &  Community

Local Support: Bought items from local bakery/café and local co-op on Wednesday.

Relationships: My youngest sister’s birthday was Saturday; I sent her a card and couple of gifts from Etsy (unfortunately, she was dealing with tooth pain that day ☹️). My other sister had a surgical procedure on Wednesday and we (my sisters and my cousin) communicated about that a bit. My husband cleared our travelling neighbours’ driveway on Thursday evening. We had drinks/dinner/dessert at friends’ (ED, SD) house on Friday night — nice to catch up for a couple of hours.

Chatted with a neighbour (SL and Otisdog) while out walking on Friday. Neither of my regular groups met this week. A friend (LM) offered to pick up items for us at regional co-op on Sunday but none of the items was in stock(!)

Donations: Renewed our membership in the Native Plant Trust on Saturday. Ordered three memberships in various non-profits as Christmas gifts.

• Endings 

Still using parsley I harvested from the garden a few weeks ago.

I finished this fun, easy, and festive 500-piece puzzle on Wednesday. I started it Tuesday after dinner.

• All This Useless Beauty

One of my favourite annual traditions occurred this week, the Zoom presentation of “The Making of a Longwood Christmas.” I so want to be there in person this holiday season — they’re piping peppermint into the music room and gingerbread into another space! — but our cat-sitter is on a December break, and of course weather is always iffy this time of year. So, this is the next best thing to experiencing it in person. The theme this year was magic, and a lot of the displays seemed to be suspended in air. (More pics and info here.)

Also, this