A Moveable Garden

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

• Weather

Temperatures are warming up. Although the average high temp this week was 36.8°F and the average low was 18.3°F, highs reached well into the 40°Fs on two days, hitting a sultry 49.3°F on Thursday, and lows were mostly in the high teens and 20°Fs, though on Sunday night into Monday (2nd to 3rd) we reached down to the depths of -2.6°F. We had rain this week instead of snow, about a half-inch on Wed. and another quarter inch on Thursday. Unfortunately, our part of the state is still in a moderate drought, as is much of the northeastern U.S. seaboard.

• Beginnings/Firsts

On Tuesday I created and sent out a link to the March 2025 nature photos album for those on the email list. I set up a new Chewy Autoship on Friday for Beyond gravy wet cat food (which I can no longer buy locally) and some cat treats.

We saw what we’re pretty sure was a MINK crossing a road and running toward a snowy trail in town on Saturday while out walking. It was too fast and then too hidden to get a photo.

We’re back to Daylight Savings Time again as of early this morning. And Lent began on Wednesday.

• Wild Things (Flora, Fauna, Fungi) in addition to others elsewhere in this post

• Wandering 

Walked in town on Monday, Tues., Thursday, and Saturday (it was rainy Wed. and very windy Friday).

Took a tour of a local farmstand greenhouse on Saturday.

Took a friend to a medical appt at Dartmouth on Monday morning and we ran several errands in Lebanon, which gave me more practice driving there.

• Curiosity & Discoveries

The MINK!

Also, on Friday I watched an online presentation that was broadcast live on Thursday, “At Home With Nature: Beauty, Ecology, and Experience” with ecology-based landscape designer Larry Weaner at New Directions on American Landscape (which he founded; his daughter Sara is now its executive director). He lives on a small (1/3 acre) property in Glenside, PA, just outside Philadelphia, and he lectured on using mostly native plants in layers mimicking meadow, woodland, and shrubby thicket to create a lawnless small yard full of biodiversity.

• Creating

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

Body/Mind: I worked out four times (4 hours) this week and walked outside on four days, plus walked the treadmill once (34 mins, 2.3 miles). I took over 9,000 steps on five days, including over 14,000 steps twice. (I also had two low-step days, under 7,000 steps per day, on Friday, which was unintentional, and Sunday, which was intentional.) I participated in Dharma Sunday with Lama Willa (from Hawaii) and 20 or so other people online for 1.5 hours on Sunday, with meditation and teaching on the topic of “Return to Source: Coming Home to Ancestral Wisdom.”

• Nesting 

Cleaning/Maintenance: My husband cleaned the filters on the air purifiers on Monday (a monthly chore). I watered houseplants on Tuesday. I vacuumed the kitchen and laundry/hall on Friday and the family room on Sunday. My husband ran a load of clothes laundry on Friday.

Supplies: I ordered more finch seed on Tuesday and a bra (finally!) and a bag of cat treats on Wed. My husband ordered more (larger, see-thru) live mousetraps.

Financial/Admin: I contacted various people and institutions this week to have the maximum amount of money moved to my HSA for the 2024 year. I checked recent credit card transactions online on Thursday. I called the hospital on Friday to have my MMR titers lab bill submitted to my insurance. I set up a new (and only) Chewy autoship on Friday. I worked for an hour or two cleaning up my tags on this blog (still more to do).

Food: I made Italian fish stew with swordfish on Monday, which we had on Tues. as well, and I had it again on Wed. while my husband had a salmon burger (made from salmon tails). On Thurs., I made sofrito risotto (corn, red bell peppers, shrimp, scallion, parsley, a little Old Bay, garlic, Pecorino), which we also ate on Friday and Saturday (on Sat. with sautéed local spinach). Sunday my husband made whole wheat pasta which he combined with leftover tomato sauce and some sausage, while I had a veggie burger sans bun (just a lot of arugula) and the last of the risotto. My husband also made sourdough crumpets, on Wed.

• Sleeping & Dreaming

Back to just OK sleep, with a Fitbit sleep score of 85.1 and an average per night this week of 7 hours 10 mins of sleep. My dream sleep accounted for 12.5 hours this week, deep sleep for only 7 hours. A pretty dreamy week, though.

• Reading / Words & Ideas / Listening / Watching  

Reading

BOOKS: I finished Megan Miranda’s Daughter of Mine (2024), which I described briefly last week. I’m almost finished now with Stone Yard Devotional (2024), a novel by Australian writer Charlotte Wood; it was short-listed for the Booker Prize last year. Liking it.

OTHER

Some articles/essays I’ve read and appreciated:

I love this kind of essay: “Thinking the Think” by Sophie Lucido Johnson at her newsletter You Are Doing A Good Enough Job, from which

“The difference in quality between a thought that you’re welcoming and one you’re suppressing is magnificent. Like water in a stream versus water you’re trying to keep from dripping through a hole in the roof of your house. At night, I have to push thoughts away; all the grimmest ones are emboldened by the dark and want my attention. … A true statement: I have never, not even one time, gotten an idea for something to write or draw from something I saw on Instagram. This is wild, because every single day I think, “Maybe I’ll just look on Instagram for some inspiration. See what people are into.” This is never ever ever ever ever where the ideas come from! They come from sitting still in a chair, or walking through a neighborhood all alone, or gazing at the wallpaper in someone else’s bathroom when you have to sit there but you left your phone in the other room.”

This short essay, Breath & Memory, by Michael Watson at Dreaming the World.

The Fedco seed catalog, the Botanical Interests seed catalog …

— “And at the end of nearly everything, poetry, the old rose, by its very avowal, refuses to shut its merlot mouth.” C.D. Wright (source: https://transactionswithbeauty.com/home/cosmicsadness)

Watching

We finished watching The Pale Horse” on BritBox (based on an Agatha Christie novel but rewritten) and watched all of “Shetland” season 8 on BritBix this week. And golf on the weekend.

• Connections &  Community

Local Support: Shopped at local co-op, regional co-op, local independent drugstore, and local farmstand this week, and bought a Too Good To Go bag from a local bakery/café on Thursday. Took a tour of the ‘Taj Mahal’ farmstand greenhouse on Saturday. Have I mentioned that 95% of my books come from the local library (or interlibrary loan)?

Relationships: Took a friend (ED) to a medical appt on Monday (a little more than an hour round trip) and had time to catch-up en route. Sent a Jacquie Lawson birthday card to a college friend for her birthday on Thursday. Mailed a bunch of locally made maple sugar candy to a friend (JKN) on request for her husband, who loves it and remembers it from childhood family vacations. Hosted the permaculture meeting on Thursday morning, with seven of us discussing chapter 3 (about colour) in Ed Yong’s An Immense World. Ran into same friend from Monday’s excursion while we were both out walking on Saturday and stopped to chat. Received longish email from friend (RVN) and exchanged some other emails and texts with friends and family. Salon didn’t meet this week.

Donations: Donated (membership) to the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests on Saturday.

• Endings 

The end of standard time for now. With these warming temps in the day it’s also the end of leaving the birdfeeders up when we’re not home to watch them and we’re definitely bringing them in overnight.

• All This Useless Beauty

goldfinch in sunlight