A Moveable Garden

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

• Weather

Rainy about sums up the week. Our weather station didn’t record the rain on Monday, but from Tues. thru Sunday (the latter being the only day without rain) we received 4-3/4 inches of rain. Temps were on the chilly side, too, with highs ranging from 61.2°F to 50°F, averaging 56°F, and lows ranging from 41.7°F to 51.3°F, averaging 47°F. The yard is wet.

• Beginnings/Firsts

We grilled out for the first time this season on Sunday, hot dogs (or soy dogs).

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

black bear at 1 a.m. on Wednesday, caught on foggy motion camera

Merlin heard birds at home and at The Fells

• Wandering 

Not a lot of walking this week with all the rain, but we did manage to get out for in-town walks on Thursday and Saturday and trail & garden walks at The Fells on Sunday.

The Fells

• Curiosity & Discoveries

A few this week —

Beans growing in the compost from some of last year’s crop of scarlet runners that I just got around to podding last week; I tossed the shriveled looking ones in the compost and nature took its course.

I found a wild dwarf ginseng growing in the lawn on Thursday!

We found wood frog eggs on Sat. in the ditch by the road where our neighbour’s sump pump drains.

I think these are acorns but I’m not sure — at The Fells. iNaturalist wasn’t at all sure, and I’ve asked NH Extension but haven’t heard back.

• Creating

Tried to sculpt a better shape from the rhododendrons. Time will tell.

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

Body/Mind: I worked out three times (3 hours) this week in addition to several hours of gardening. I walked more than 8,000 steps on five days, including three over 10,000 and one day of almost 15,000 steps. I also treadmilled on Tuesday for 41 mins, 2.75 miles. I had a negative Covid test on Thursday. I had my 6-month body scan at the dermatologist on Monday, with 7 zaps, + one shave sent for biopsy.

I attended Dharma Sunday on Zoom on Sunday with Lama Willa leading meditation and speaking on “Sympathy for the Devil: Loving the Shadow Into Freedom.”

Vehicles: My husband took off the BMW snow tires on Sunday, cleaned up the axles, etc., and put on the regular tires.

• Gardening/Yard 

As mentioned, it rained a lot and the yard was soggy, which limited time in the garden this week to about 6 hours for me, spent weeding, cutting back, pruning, and hacking back (with my spouse on chain saw) the rhododendron that threatens to engulf the house. My spouse also cut up firewood from tree branches that fell or were cut earlier this spring or in winter, and he carried piles of pruning, clipping, and weeding to their final destination in the yard (we’re both working on the overflowing pile in the photo above). We teamed up on Wed. to take down the Christmas lights (which we had unplugged in March) from the weeping spruce that just keeps growing taller and taller.

Some things blooming and leafing this week:

and a pea plant starting to look pea-ish

• Nesting

Cleaning/Maintenance: We did clothes laundry on Wednesday and again on Saturday (after a repair was made to the washer). I watered the houseplants on Sunday. My husband replaced the water level sensor in the washing machine on Sat. and fixed the check valve in the humidifier water tank. On Wed., I exasperatedly cleared out and swept the pantry floor after spilling lots of cat treats over everything in there. Thursday I spent about 1/2-hour cleaning up and clearing out the paper bag section of our recycling area; plastic bags will be next. No doubt the robovac ran in the bedroom this week.

Financial/Admin: My husband contacted the credit union again on Monday and it seems that the previous issue is now resolved. 🤞 He also called the cable/internet company on Monday and again got $20 knocked off our bill for a year. I called the water authority on Friday to find out the amount we owe for this half-year because we still hadn’t received our bill — and as they are not part of the digital world, payments can take a while to reach them and penalties for lateness are severe.

Supplies: Nothing major.

Food: My husband made a sourdough pain de campagne on Saturday. I made the penne-asparagus-pine nut thing on Monday (with local asparagus and our own chives and parsley), which we had on Tues., too. We got Chinese takeout on Wed., which we ate through Saturday. We grilled hot dogs (beef for him, soy for me) on Sunday and had those with a noodle-broccolini- red bell pepper-soy sauce thing (that also used up the last of the broccoli in garlic sauce from our takeout order), + corn.

• Sleeping & Dreaming

A fairly poor sleep week, though with several interesting dreams. Overall, I got about 7 hours 45 mins of sleep per night (range from 9 hours 9 mins to 7 hours 12 mins), which sounds pretty decent, but my Fitbit sleep score was only 85.9. REM sleep accounted for 11 hours 45 mins and deep sleep for 8 hours 10 mins.

• Reading / Words & Ideas / Listening / Watching  

Reading

BOOKS: I’m reading but have not quite finished The Eights (2025) by Joanna Miller. It’s historical fiction focusing on the first year of college for four young women who are among the first to matriculate at Oxford, in 1920. Liking it. On tap after that are Long Island Compromise (2024), a novel by Taffy Brodesser-Akner, and Katherine Mansfield’s The Garden Party and Other Stories (1922).

OTHER

✨✨✨

I appreciated an article in The Cut (may be behind paywall) titled “The Mother of Codependency: Nearly 40 years ago, Melody Beattie wrote the book that would forever change the way we talk about relationships,” by Lindsey Adler. Beattie, who died in February, published Codependent No More in 1986; I read it about the time it came out and its main points have always stuck with me and felt true. From the article:

Watching

More “Vera,” a couple of “House Hunters,” a “Keeping Up Appearances” or two, and probably some golf at the weekend. Oh, and while I treadmilled I watched a Saturday Night Live from March with a funny bit on Weekend Update about Joann Fabrics’ store closures — they really nail why being in that store — which I entered two or three times and only accompanying someone who actually wanted to be there — felt so unpleasantly dingy, homely, run-down: “Joann’s has everything — fluorescent lighting, plastic succulents with six layers of dust on them. … First thing I do when I get in — I check that we always have Halloween stuff, then I sweep the dust into a pile and spread it back out.”

Listening

Shazam’d this week:

• Connections &  Community

Local Support: Ordered takeout from local independent Chinese restaurant on Wednesday. Had lunch outside at a local bakery/café on Thursday and bought treats there on Saturday. Did a big shop at the regional co-op on Monday after my dermatology appt.

Relationships: Sent friend (JKN) a birthday card, a gift card, and ordered flowers (from an independent florist local to her) to arrive on her birthday, Saturday. Texted a friend (CW) on her birthday, Monday. Emailed back and forth and caught up a bit with a friend (JSK) after I received an email from her hacked account on Wed. RSVP’d no to a bridal shower in a couple of weeks for my nephew’s fiancée (would have liked to go but distance and other likely events precluded it). Chatted with a neighbour (AA) we ran into on the patio of the café on Thurs. and with an acquaintance (LV) in the grocery store for a bit on Sunday. Celebrated two birthdays in our Salon group on Friday (MBW age 88 and BF age 77), held at a member’s house about an hour away (four of us carpooled), with six of us present. Our permaculture group had a sort of “death café” on Thursday via Zoom to talk about green burial and personalised end-of-life care and planning (8 of us present). Talked with my sister on the phone for 10 mins on Thurs. and 1/2 hour on Saturday.

Donations: I renewed our membership to The Fells on Sunday.

• Endings/Harvest 

Snow tires put away until next year (or rather, later this year). Harvested parsley and chives from the garden for dinner this week.

• All This Useless Beauty

I love the photos of our house and yard that the motion camera took (or actually I took using the motion camera) on Sunday night around 9:30pm, close to the full moon.

Also liked the way this photo of a peony flower bud (at The Fells) turned out, the texture of it.

skeletal tulip poplar in the mist