Weekly recap of my ritual of existence in this liminal space called life. (See here for more info.)
- Weather
Fairly mild in the days, fairly cold at night this week. High temperatures ranged from 39°F on Monday to 16.9°F on Wednesday, averaging 28.1°F. Low temps ranged from -0.4°F on Thursday to 16.7°F on Friday, averaging 9.7°F. We got about 12 inches of new snow this week, with 4 inches on Wed-Thurs. and 8 inches on Sat-Sun. The sun is now setting after 5 p.m. yay.
- Beginnings/Firsts
I began Sharon Salzberg’s month-long Real Happiness Challenge on Tuesday, several days into it, so I did the first four meditations — breath meditation, hearing meditation, mental noting, and counting meditation — as one longer meditation.
I started the February nature photos album on Monday and sent out an email with January and February’s album links.
I shoveled from the sunroom door to the fence gate and around one of the bird feeding areas on Friday for the first time this winter! We hadn’t had enough snow to need it until now.
My husband turned 70 this week, to very little hoopla.
- Wild Things (Flora, Fauna, Fungi) in addition to others elsewhere in this post
- Wandering
We or I walked in-town on Monday, Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday.
- Curiosity & Discoveries
On Tuesday evening, I watched a good webinar on Native Ferns and Wildflowers for Shade Gardens, given by Leslie Duthie, through Lexington Landscapes, in Lexington, MA.
- Creating
Nothing, again.
- Repairing and Maintaining (everything but the house & yard)
Body/Mind: I worked out four times (4 hours) this week and walked/jogged on the treadmill for over 1.5 hours, totalling a little over 7 miles. I walked over 9,000 steps on five days, including four over 10,000 and two over 14,000. I also participated in Dharma Sunday, meditation and teaching on Feeling Wisdom: How What We Resist is the Key to Our Freedom, with Lama Willa. I had a negative Covid test on Friday.
- Nesting
Cleaning/Maintenance: I laundered our sheets and the sheets from the guest bed (last slept in by guests in August, I believe) on Monday. In the process, I realised the (15.5-year-old) mattress protector on our bed was deteriorating so ordered a new one. I did clothes laundry on Wednesday and Saturday. I put away the rest of the Christmas stuff — undecorated the little Juniper “Gnom” tree and put away the fairies, santas, and assorted decor — on Monday, just one day after Candlemas, which signals the end of Christmastide. On Saturday, I spent an hour vacuuming the family room (also spot cleaning the carpet), kitchen, and hallway.
Supplies: Ordered mattress protector to replace one that was deteriorating. Added some decaf apricot Republic of Tea to the Subscribe & Save. Ordered some finch and woodpecker seed. Ordered six boxes of Rishi jasmine green tea.
Food: I made a risotto with red bell pepper, corn, and shrimp on Monday, which we finished on Thursday, along with sautéed broccoli. On Tuesday we went out to eat using a birthday discount card (swordfish for me, a multi-meat-loaf for him) and we had those leftovers on Wed. along with peas. On Friday I made roasted root vegetables (fennel, potatoes, golden beets, carrots, garlic and onion) and also roasted cod with kalamatas, capers, and grape tomatoes for dinner, which we had again on Saturday. I made a tuna casserole on Sunday, which included artichoke hearts, onions, red bell peppers, garlic — a variation of Martha Stewart’s Mediterranean Tuna Noodle casserole.
Garden/Yard: I shoveled a couple of small paths in the backyard on Friday. My husband cleared the driveway Thursday and Sunday. I chopped ice off the wooden edges of the heated birdbath and filled it with clean water on Saturday, and also on Sat. my husband pruned the peach trees and pushed back into place a large section of siding on the back of the house that had come down overnight (wind?).
- Sleeping & Dreaming
Sleep time and quality were below average this week, and overall I slept less, an average of 7 hours 13 minutes, with a nightly range from 6-1/2 hours to slightly more than 8 hours. Twice my Fitbit sleep score was 78, which is low for me, and the rest of the nights ranged from 84 to 89, averaging 83.9. I’ve been having vivid dreams; my REM sleep time this week was 13-1/2 hours. I was in deep sleep only about 7 hours 45 minutes.
- Reading / Words & Ideas / Listening / Watching
BOOKS: I finished two books this week, The Gardener’s Plot< (2024) by Deborah Benoit and The Santa Klaus Murder (1936/2015) by Mavis Doriel Hay. Both were OK. I’ve started Keep (2024) by Jenny Haysom, which I’m really liking.
OTHER: So many articles and essays this week. A sampling:
Letters From An American (Heather Cox Richardson) on 7 Feb. was mostly quoting Sen. Angus King (ME) on the Constitution, the role of government, and what a democracy can do about those who flout the rule of law.
Life in authoritarian states is mostly boring and tolerable. Americans have an overly dramatic view what the end of democracy looks like, by Thomas Pepinsky at Vox on 9 Jan.
The Government’s Computing Experts Say They Are Terrified: Four IT professionals lay out just how destructive Elon Musk’s incursion into the U.S. government could be, in The Atlantic, by Charlie Warzel and Ian Bogost, 7 Feb. (may be behind a paywall).
ALSO:
Watching
We finished watching “Mum” and also re-watched “Rosemary’s Baby” this week … I had forgotten almost all of it since I watched it as a young teen.
Listening
Lots of listening, a lot of it to FIP-Paris as I cooked, the rest from the local radio stations while getting ready in the mornings and a few from my streaming workouts.
- Connections & Community
Local Support: We ate out at a local restaurant using a birthday discount card on Tuesday (an early dinner). I bought a few things at a local independent drugstore and some birdseed at a regional chain hardware store on Wednesday. I bought some food at the local co-op on Friday.
Relationships: Permaculture group met on Zoom on Thursday morning for an hour to talk about chapter one of Ed Yong’s An Immense World (8 of us).
Salon met in person on Friday for over 2 hours, with five of us discussing all manner of things political and personal (is there a difference?). Chatted with a friend (ED) in the drugstore parking lot and then we emailed a bit. I dropped off a small gift for a friend (ND) on Friday afternoon. Emailed with a friend in Maine (LFR). Ordered some soup etc. on Sunday for my sister’s friend (STM) whose bulldog Henry died this week. Chatted by phone w/ my sister for 45 minutes on Sunday. The usual emailing, texting, and social media messaging.
- Endings
None noticed.
- All This Useless Beauty
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