Weekly recap of my ritual of existence in this liminal space called life. (See here for more info.)
- Weather
Weather was sort of warm, with highs ranging from 36.3°F to 18.3°F — and in fact, highs were over freezing on three days — and we had some slush and puddles during the days, then we dropped down to the teens or below at night, with low temps ranging from -5.6°F to 16.0°F, and the water and slush froze. Tuesday was a little snowy, maybe an inch overall, then three inches fell that night and lightly through most of Wednesday, with another four inches or so on Saturday. Overall, we received about 8 inches of snow this week. With more on the way! High temperatures averaged 28.6°F, lows averaged 7.7°F. Some days were pretty windy, like Tuesday, when we were in the high 20°Fs but windchill was 2°F.
- Beginnings/Firsts
I’m in the midst of switching my browser to Brave and my email client to Protonmail.
- Wild Things (Flora, Fauna, Fungi) in addition to others elsewhere in this post
- Wandering
Took 1 to 1.5-hour walks in town Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, and walked at the bog on Saturday and around the lake on Sunday.
in-town
bog
lake
- Curiosity & Discoveries
We participated in Virtual Birding thru Maine Audubon on Thursday evening and also really enjoyed a members-only webinar from Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain, Boston, MA, on Saturday afternoon, Shrubs for Winter — it was an -in-person walk with a hybrid online component, and it was one of the best I’ve experienced.
Virtual Birding
European starlings + red-bellied woodpecker at Cornell’s Ithaca NY feeders; brambling finches in Hungary; female great spotted woodpecker and great tits, + eurasian jay, in Abernathy Forest Reserve, Scotland.
Shrubs for Winter
Guide with yellow twig dogwood; red twig dogwood; Arnold Arboretum landscape; blood-red twig dogwood; Lindera angustifolia (Asian spicebush) fruits; guide with Stephananda Incisa ‘Crispa’ ground cover; and Hibiscus moscheutos ‘Wisley’.
- Creating
Nope.
- Repairing and Maintaining (everything but the house & yard)
Body/Mind: I worked out three times (3 hours) this week and treadmilled on two evenings, totalling 54 minutes and 4.25 miles. I racked up over 8,000 steps every day, over 10,000 on five days, and over 12,000 on 3 days.
Vehicles: My husband had my car on the charger for a while after the Check Engine light came on, which is does every couple of weeks in winter, I guess because I don’t drive it often or far. Also, I forgot to record that a couple of weeks ago, he installed a bluetooth adapter into the wiring harness of his 15-year-old car’s radio so that he can get audio from his phone through the radio.
- Nesting
Cleaning/Maintenance: I did clothes laundry on Tuesday and a lot of cleaning of kitchen, bathroom, and other surfaces and the toilets that day. My husband made the dump trip on Wednesday.
Supplies: I ordered a COS sweater on Saturday and a long-sleeve T-shirt on Sunday, both via eBay. I placed a Nuts.com order on Friday for macadamias, orzo, and a few other things. A WellBefore auto-delivery of KN94 masks was delivered this week.
Food: Veggie burgers, peas, and mac & cheese on Monday; canned soups and grilled cheese on homemade sourdough bread on Tuesday; spinach ravioli with basil and cheese, sautéed spinach and (our) garlic, and raw cukes and bell peppers on Wed.; egg noodles, scrambled eggs, artichoke hearts, and cheese on Thursday; grits with bell peppers, black beans, tomatoes, garlic, and onions on Friday; parmesan peppercorn breaded haddock along with the leftover grits/veggies on both Saturday and Sunday. We also ate breakfast out on Sunday — I had a spicy red dal dish with tempeh and my husband had blueberry pancakes and an egg.
Admin/Financial: We walked to town hall and paid the car registrations this week. I’m in the process of switching browsers from Chrome to Brave and email client from Gmail to Protonmail. Still collecting 2024 tax info for the CPA.
Garden/Yard: My husband cleared the snow from the driveway with the snowblower on Wednesday and Saturday. The webinar on shrubs in winter got me thinking about shrubs …
- Sleeping & Dreaming
Sleeping was so-so this week, with a Fitbit sleep score of 85.7 (high of 92, low of 83, and several 84s). I averaged 7 hours 51 minutes of sleep per night, with 12-1/2 hours of REM and 8 hours and 20 minutes of deep sleep this week. The nights and mornings felt very dreamy.
- Reading / Words & Ideas / Listening / Watching
Reading
BOOKS
I finished two novels this week, Identity Unknown (Kay Scarpetta, #28; 2024) by Patricia Cornwell and House of Glass (2024) by Sarah Pekkanen. I liked both.
OTHER
I read James Fallows all the time but most of his stuff at Breaking the News is behind a paywall. This piece about the crash of an American Eagle flight and an Army helicopter near National Airport in DC — It Had Been 16 Years Since a Fatal US Airlines Crash. But there appears to have been another one this evening — which he posted on 30 January, is free to everyone.
Fallows also, on 2 Feb, posted an essay titled What the Right Kind of Nationalism Sounds Like. Justin Trudeau gives an international lesson in leadership. It’s only for paid subscribers but quite a lot of it appears before the fold and is worth reading.
Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American on 28 January, about the unconstitutional activities of the incoming administration to date, is also worth reading, if you can stomach it.
Watching
We re-watched seasons 1 and 2 of the British comedy “Mum” on BritBox this week. I watched a little PGA golf over the weekend.
Listening
Some of what I listened to this week.
- Connections & Community
Local Support: Picked up a Too Good To Go bag from the local bakery on Friday, the first time we’ve done that this year; it had a garden hummus sandwich and a muffin in it. Had breakfast at localish farmstand-café on Sunday noonish and bought some produce there (and an item requested by a friend).
Relationships: Zoomed with my sister for an hour on Friday morning. Salon met on Friday with five of us for 2 hours. Otherwise, just texted, emailed, and messaged friends and family, chatted with folks at the library, and waved at neighbours and acquaintances. Sent a small gift to a friend’s daughter who was recovering from surgery.
- Endings
I took down the Christmas cards on Tuesday and the Christmas tree ornaments and other decor (the fairies, Santas, etc) on Thursday. Got it all done before February!
- All This Useless Beauty
Leave a Reply