Weekly recap of my ritual of existence in this liminal space called life. (See here for more info.)
- Weather
Weather was springy! High temperatures ranged from 71.4°F on Saturday, which I think is our first instance of a temp over 70°F this year, down to 42.1°F on Wednesday, with most of the high temps in the 60°Fs, averaging 59.5°F. The low temperatures ranged from 27.7°F on Friday to 52.9°F on Saturday, averaging 37.6°F. Looking ahead in the forecast for two weeks, I’m not seeing any lows forecast below about 36°F. We got about 1/4 inch of precipitation this week, not enough. Our sunroom temperature hit 73°F on Sunday, when outside temps topped out at 62.2°F (and it was very windy outside!). We’re looking on track for pea-planting next week!
- Beginnings/Firsts
I checked the one non-wireless motion camera this week and found that we actually had a black bear in the yard on 5 April, so that was the first for us this year. But we had two more sightings on the cameras this week, on Wed. and Friday. We haven’t had birdfeeders up since the end of March so I assume they’re (or s/he is) just passing through.
As noted above, we had our first high temp of the year of 70°F or over this week, on Saturday.
On Friday the local bakery/café opened their patio for al fresco dining for the first time since last fall!
- Wild Things (Flora, Fauna, Fungi) in addition to others elsewhere in this post
Birds heard on our trail walks and around town from 15-19 April —
Some audio (20 seconds) of the wood frog chorus at The Fells this week.
- Wandering
Walked in town on Monday (long walk), Thursday, Friday (twice), and Sat.; and at The Fells on Tuesday, on some trails by a wetland/pond on Wed., at Kezar Lake on Friday, and at the bog (twice) on Sunday. It’s hard not to be outside with this delightful weather. We also attended two open houses on Saturday, one in town and one a town over.
in town
wetland trails
lake – two loons are back!
bog
The Fells
- Curiosity & Discoveries
Several! First, this seems to be a hat pin stuck into something … furry? At The Fells.
Next, also at The Fells, we came across this “official” geocache box.
Then, I noticed the Goodyear Blimp on Flight Radar off the coast of Florida on Tuesday, the first time it’s come to my attention on the app.
Finally, what in the what? Seen at the NH Liquor store this week. (That said, the bottles are gorgeous, so as far as I’m concerned this also counts as All This Useless Beauty.)
- Creating
I cook all the time but I don’t bake a lot anymore, so the buttermilk biscuits were a bit of a creative stretch for me, a mini exercise of body memory.
- Repairing and Maintaining (everything but the house & yard)
Body/Mind: I worked out four times (4 hours) this week and walked more than 10,000 steps every day, including four days over 12,000, three days over 14,000, and one of 19,295 steps.
- Gardening/Yard
My husband did some yardwork — pruning, clearing brush — on Tuesday for an hour. The garlic is up about 3 or 4 inches, centaurea (perennial bachelor button) foliage has emerged, the primrose and bloodroot are blooming, and the hellebore and daffodils are just about to bloom.
- Nesting
Cleaning/Maintenance: I did clothes laundry and vacuumed the kitchen and hallway on Tuesday. My husband made the dump/recycling trip on Thursday (mainly taking the litter we picked up around town).
Financial/Admin: My social security benefits application was approved on Wed., an amount communicated, and a date given for the first installment. Fingers crossed.
Supplies: Stocked up on bandaids, Bonine (just in case, for vertigo), and pine nuts on Tuesday.
Food: I had our takeout Indian from last week for dinner Mon-Wed and made that asparagus-penne-pine nut dish for my husband for those nights (to which he added sausage). Thursday we had veggie burgers + tuna-mac & cheese-peas as a side dish, and we had the tuna-m&ch-peas as the main dish on Friday and Sat., along with raw veggies and tapenade. Easter dinner was Italian (sword)fish stew along with homemade buttermilk biscuits.
For Easter breakfast, my husband made crêpes Suzette (basically this Jacques Pépin recipe but with buckwheat flour which made them even prettier; photo below does not do justice!). I made Corpse Reviver #2 cocktails later on that day (using Cointreau for the orange liqueur).
- Sleeping & Dreaming
Sleep was OK this week, with an average of 7.5 hours per night and a range from 8.25 hours to 6.75 hours. Fitbit score averaged 87.3. REM sleep accounted for 13 hours 19 mins and deep sleep for almost 8 hours. Many vivid and seemingly long dreams this week.
- Reading / Words & Ideas / Listening / Watching
Reading
BOOKS: Nothing! I started reading Orbital by Samantha Harvey but the first paragraph was too beautiful and I had to stop. I switched to Kills Well With Others by Deanna Raybourn and am almost finished with it — enjoying it, as I did her first one in the series about professional female assassins in their 60s who do a lot of globetrotting.
Here is the paragraph from Orbital:
OTHER — Lots!
✨✨✨
✨✨✨
✨✨✨
And these handy items:
Know the symptoms of sepsis, which kills more people than breast cancer, lung cancer, and prostate cancer every year (in the U.S. and in the U.K.) For more details, Sepsis Alliance.
How to recognise someone who may have had a traumatic childhood:
Watching
We watched the 3-episode Towards Zero, based loosely on an Agatha Christie novel, on BritBox this week. It was OK. Otherwise, we watched an episode of “Vera” (also BritBox) most nights. I didn’t really watch any golf this weekend!
Listening
Songs Shazamed this week.
- Connections & Community
Local Support: Picked up a Rx at a local independent pharmacy on Monday. Bought vegetables at the local farmstand on Tuesday. Bought a gift for a friend’s birthday at a local gift shop on Wed. Ate meals outside at local bakery/café on both Friday and Saturday. My husband and I picked up litter on Thursday (we’re part of a group here in town that takes on specific roads), collecting more than three grocery bags full in route of a mile or so.
Relationships: We walked to friends’ (ED&SD) on Monday to get a little lesson on watering their seedlings while they were gone and then we walked over to water said seedlings twice during the week.
A friend (ED) picked up an item for us at the store and also gave us their saved New Yorkers on Monday, and another friend (RL) picked up several items for us from the store and delivered them to us on Monday.
We delivered two portions of sourdough starter to friends/neighbours (RL, SS) on Saturday. On Tuesday I went to the P.O. to drop off a misdelivered piece of mail and ran into the person to whom it was delivered (BC) and we chatted a bit.
On Thursday I mailed a gift + card to a friend (RVN) for her birthday next week and mailed two “welcome to the world” gifts to her two most recent granddaughters (IP and LN), and I ordered another gift from the UK for the same friend that day, which will get there after her birthday. My cousin (AWB) sent us an Easter card. I sent 21 digital Jacquie Lawson Easter cards to friends/family.
We chatted for 1/2 hour with one neighbour (JL) and then 1/2 hour with another neighbour (BT) on Friday while ending our multiple (3!) walks that day. Also exchanged greetings with some neighbours (AA & family) on an after-dinner walk on Thursday. Permaculture met on Thursday on Zoom for an hour with 5 of us, and Salon met in person on Friday for 1.5 hours with 3 of us.
Hot cross buns made by our Salon host, and some flowers in her yard:
- Endings
These Easter sweets from our local bakery/café — sugar cookie and egg-shaped krispy rice treat — got ended pretty quickly by my mouth.
- All This Useless Beauty
these pasqueflowers
this thing
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