LIMINAL LIVING #75: 2 JUNE TO 8 JUNE 2025

Animals, Birds, Collector Garden, Community, Flowers, Garden Work, Gardening, Harvest, Insects & Arachnids, Liminal Life, Public Gardens & Parks, Sense of Place/Travel, Slow Gardening & Living, Social Commentary/Culture, Sound & Music, Vernacular Landscape

LIMINAL LIVING #75: 2 JUNE TO 8 JUNE 2025

June 8, 2025

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

Weather

We got quite a bit of rain on Friday and Sat. and drip drops three other days, totalling about 2-3/4 inches. High temperatures ranged from 91°F on Thursday to 63°F on Saturday, averaging 76.2°F, so a much warmer week than the one before. Lows ranged from 40.3°F on Monday to 60.3°F on Thursday, averaging 51.9°F.

Beginnings/Firsts

We saw either our first monarch or first viceroy butterfly while walking at the lake on Sunday. I couldn’t get a photo and it was flitting too much to get a positive ID. We also had our first mouse in the house this year (live-trapped), on Friday. My husband went fishing for the first time this season on Monday. I created a June Nature Photos album and emailed the link to those interested.

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

Wandering

We walked at the lake on both Tuesday and on Sunday. Also walked in town on Thursday and Saturday, and in Boston on Wednesday, where we walked from the train station to the Aquarium and from there to lunch at Ma Maison, then after lunch on the Charles River Esplanade to The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (we took a Lyft from there to the train station afterward in the interests of time, though a car moving only six miles in a half-hour doesn’t seem super-efficient to me).

in town

lake

some birds heard at the lake on Sunday

Boston — in town & Rose Kennedy Greenway

Boston — New England Aquarium

Boston — Esplanade

Boston — Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Curiosity & Discoveries

Though we have lived within a couple of hours of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum for 31 years, we had never visited it! As it was, we spent only about an hour there on Wed. afternoon, which gave us a broad overview, and now we need to return for a few hours to really appreciate the place (and eat at the café).

Creating

Not my creating but just want to shout out to the Gardner Museum which is fantastically a one-of-a-kind.

Repairing and Maintaining (everything but the house & yard)

Body/Mind: I worked out four times (4 hours) this week and walked more than 11,000 steps every day but one, including five days over 14,000 steps, three days over 15,000, and one day over 16,000. I had a negative Covid test on Friday. I participated in Dharma Sunday over Zoom with Lama Willa Baker leading meditation and speaking, followed by Q&A; her Dharma title was Mycelial Wisdom I: Dismantling the Illusion of “I.”

Gardening/Yard

I planted most of my veggie and annual flower starts this week, either on Monday or on Sunday:

** 3 small basil plants, 3 northern bell peppers, 2 sungold and a gardener’s delight tomato (substitution for the peacevines I had requested; I held the other gardener’s delight tomato over for next week as it looked a bit wilty), all from Foundwell Farm;

** a six-pack of calendula, from a local plant sale;

** a sizeable rosemary plant, 5 coleus plants in three varieties, 4 Firecracker vermillionaire (cuphea) annuals, one yellow pear tomato, and a 6-pack of sweet millions tomatoes, all from the local farmstand;

** and two Matt’s wild cherry tomatoes started from seed by a friend (ED). I planted another tomato, a yellow pear variety called Napa Chardonnay, started by another friend (MAB) but it died almost immediately 😔.

** I also finally planted the remaining Rose of Sharon from the Merrimack Conservation District sale (gave the other four away to friends and neighbours) and I planted the raspberry-hued aster a friend (ND) gave those of us at Salon last week.

In all, I spent about 7 hours this week in the garden planting, mulching the veggies with chopped leaves, weeding, pruning, pulling yet more bittersweet and Virginia creeper, and watering.

My husband cleaned out the roof gutters on Friday and mowed the lawn a third time on Thursday/Friday.

the garden this week

Nesting

Cleaning/Maintenance: I did clothes laundry on Thursday.

Financial/Admin: I paid a medical bill online on Saturday. We made a motel reservation for a future trip on Friday.

Supplies: I ordered an Eddie Bauer shirt via eBay on Thursday. On Sunday I reviewed the next Chewy autoship.

Food: Asparagus is still locally in season and available, so I made the penne + asparagus&edamame + pine nut dish on Monday and on Thursday, which we also ate on Tuesday and Friday. On Wed. we got back late from Boston and had grilled hot dogs (beef or soy), mac & cheese, and corn. Saturday was veggie burgers with gobs of arugula, corn, and sautéed spinach with (our) garlic. Sunday I made the Martha Stewart tuna and farfelle puttanesca (not the one online now, but from at least as far back as 2016, when I first made it, if not before; it includes kalamata olives, lots of capers, onions, garlic (ours), tomatoes), which will give us a few days’ of leftovers.

Sleeping & Dreaming

Sleep ranged widely from 8 hours 48 mins to 6 hours 10 mins per night this week, averaging a pretty typical-for-me 7 hours 33 minutes overall. My sleep score average was 85.2 (high of 91, low of 77). I had 11 hours 51 mins of REM and 7 hours 45 mins of deep.

The cat’s daily cycle is such that at the moment he’s using his litter box between dawn (currently 4:33 a.m., with sunrise at 5:08a.m.) and 6 a.m. or so, after which he paws on us, the comforter, the drapes, or whatever he can grab until he’s barred from the room. This is playing havoc with our morning sleep, although I can fall back asleep after the disruption, which is when I have my most vivid dreams. Soon, if history is any guide, his bathroom habits will naturally transition later and we won’t have this problem for a while, until the bio-rhythm pendulum swings back again. He normally sleeps pretty much when we do and doesn’t cause a ruckus if he happens to wake first.

Reading / Words & Ideas / Listening / Watching

Reading

BOOKS: Finished Lies & Weddings (2024) by Kevin Kwan, which was a fun romp with the modern-day British-Chinese wealthy, including the Gresham family (Earl, Countess, Viscount, Ladies) and the Tong family (Eden and her father Thomas, both medical doctors). Lady Augusta’s wedding in Hawaii is the first big event, with many big sub-events that cost a literal fortune as part of it, then we’re back in England, and later we spend time in the western U.S., France, Italy, etc. Extravagance, luxury, and social standing — and anything else that money buys — are central to the plot, along with a strong-willed, selfish, conniving Countess Arabella who wants to marry off her three (nice) children to even more money and even more social standing, so there’s some romance around the margins. I’m halfway through Carl Hiaasen’s Fever Beach now.

OTHER

What Happens When People Don’t Understand How AI Works by Tyler Austin Harper (gifted link) “Many world-transforming Silicon Valley technologies from the past 30 years have been promoted as a way to increase human happiness, connection, and self-understanding—in theory—only to produce the opposite in practice. These technologies maximize shareholder value while minimizing attention spans, literacy, and social cohesion. And as Hao emphasizes, they frequently rely on grueling and at times traumatizing labor performed by some of the world’s poorest people.”

AI can now stalk you with just a single vacation photo: Artificial intelligence could weaponize the data we’ve been sharing for decades. At Vox, by Kelsey Piper. “We live in a world where not only do AIs know everything about us, but under some circumstances, they might even call the cops on us.”

Also

the male’s antennae can detect pheromones OVER A MILE AWAY

Watching

We watched some “Vera” episodes (season 12), the first of the four “Maigret” episodes with Rowan Atkinson, and one evening an “International House Hunters” and a Bob Newhart Show episode (“Freudian Ship,” 1978).

Listening

A few songs Shazam’d this week.

Connections & Community

Local Support: I bought some plants and food from the local farmstand on Monday, and also bought food at the local co-op and got more compost at the local hardware store. We had lunch on Wed. in Boston at Ma Maison, a lovely local French restaurant. On Thursday we ate breakfast outside at a local café/bakery. My husband volunteered for the local car museum this week for 8.5 hours.

Relationships: I ran into a neighbour (JL) at the farmstand on Monday and we chatted briefly. Another neighbour’s dog, who may have some dementia, broke through her invisible fence twice this week and came to visit; she’s very mild-mannered, but we’re worried about her getting hurt or lost; our neighbour (BSF) came over to talk with us about her. Permaculture met on Zoom on Thursday morning with 6 of us for an hour, and Salon met in person on Friday afternoon for 2.5 hours with 5 of us and the new dog one of our members had recently adopted, who was well-behaved. Made plans for a friend (RL) to come over next week.