LIMINAL LIVING #79: 30 JUNE TO 6 JULY

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LIMINAL LIVING #79: 30 JUNE TO 6 JULY

July 6, 2025

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

Weather

Warm, even hot a couple of days, with a high for the week of 88.7°F and a low temperature for the week of 49.5°F (and what a great night for sleeping with the windows open that was!). Overall, the average high temp was 81.75°F and the average low temp 57.5°F. We ran the A/C in the bedroom on Tues. and Wed. and probably on Sunday but I forgot to note it. We got about 1/2″ of rain this week, mostly on Thursday; I had to water the vegetable garden and a few new plants this week.

Beginnings/Firsts

I ate my first couple of shelling peas from the garden on Tuesday, 1 July! (and harvested 12 more on the 4th). The first ‘Golden Leopard’ tricyrtis (toadlily) flower bloomed on Thursday, always a day of celebration and wonder here.

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

brown wasp mantidfly (Climaciella brunnea)

Some birds Merlin heard in the yard on Tuesday & Wednesday

Wandering

Walked in town every day except Tuesday, when we walked around the lake.

in town

lake

Curiosity & Discoveries

While in the bathroom, door closed to the cat, I noticed he was with me nevertheless. Or his tail, anyway.

Here’s how the angelica flower progressed this week. It’s getting there!

Creating

Let’s see … I made a few recipes I hadn’t made in a while this week: corn fritters, macaroni salad, Niçoise salad and a (new) homemade lemon vinaigrette for it.

Repairing and Maintaining (everything but the house & yard)

Body/Mind: I walked over 10,000 steps every day this week, including six days over 11,000, three days over 12,000, and one over 15,000. I worked out three times (3 hours). Had my annual mammogram on Monday.

Gardening/Yard

I worked in the garden for about four hours this week, weeding the vegetable garden, pulling out invasives from the rock wall (bittersweet, glossy buckthorn; with my husband, who also sawed a couple of dead branches from the rock wall apple tree), harvesting veggies, watering, and planting two new cardinal flowers. My husband mowed for the 5th time this year on Monday.

pile of bittersweet and glossy buckthorn

some pics from the garden this week

Nesting

Cleaning/Maintenance: I did loads of clothes laundry on Wed. and Sunday. Fin.

Supplies: My artichoke hearts (12) and macadamia nuts were delivered on Monday. I ordered 30 tulip bulbs (Golden Girls Collection — a double early tulip) from Fedco on Tuesday, for fall delivery with the garlic previously ordered. We bought a bunch of spotlight bulbs for the sunroom and another humidifier at the local church fair sale on Saturday ($10 total).

Food: We had some leftovers (that penne thing) the first three days of the weeks with local cukes and cherry tomatoes (which we are having with most meals now). Thursday I made Niçoise salads with a homemade lemon vinaigrette, our own romaine lettuce, and local cucumbers, green beans, eggs, and fingerling potatoes. Friday we grilled (soy or beef) hot dogs and I made corn fritters and macaroni salad for sides. Sat. I made another couple of Niçoise salads (with the same homemade lemon vinaigrette and more of our own romaine lettuce and local foods). Sunday was corn fritters, macaroni salad, and sautéed Old Bay shrimp for me + grilled chicken for my husband.

Sleeping & Dreaming

I had a very bad night of sleep Saturday night into Sunday, with a sleep score of 62. The night before (when the outside temp reached 49°F), my sleep score was 92. Sometimes that’s now it goes. Overall, I got an average of 7 hours 16 mins of sleep per night this week, ranging from 5 hours 57 mins to 9 hours 2 mins. Monday night into Tuesday was very dreamy. I’m really at my best with at least 8 hours of sleep but it’s hard in the summer with the sun rising at 5:15 a.m. and light beginning to come through around the edges of our blackout drapes a half hour before that.

Reading / Words & Ideas / Listening / Watching

Reading

BOOKS I finished two books this week, I Regret Almost Everything (2025), a memoir by Keith McNally, which really lives up to its title, and Bug Hollow (2025), a novel by Michelle Huneven.

I Regret Almost Everything is a very readable if slightly prosaic memoir about this successful restaurateur (a word he hates, among many, including his own first name), born in the gritty East End of London, based for much of his life in New York City. McNally talks about his two ex-wives, his children (5 between the two marriages), his years growing up in London as a budding playwright, and his business — all that’s involved in getting a new restaurant up and running, from the idea or inspiration, finding investors, building the place (and lighting it perfectly), scouting for interior decor, fixtures, and furniture, hiring and training staff, etc. What he’s done, how he’s done it, and who he knows (quite a lot of famous people from various walks of life) is all intriguing, as are his passion for and commentary on cinema, but even more so are his thoughts about it all — his perspective looking back, his opinions and occasional analysis of himself and others — and his contemplation of the changes brought about by his debilitating stroke in Nov. 2016, his consequent suicide attempt at their summer house on Martha’s Vineyard in the summer of 2018, and the months of intense psychiatric treatment afterward. The book has an interesting flow, not strictly linear, not really thematic, but it works. Recommended.

Bug Hollow is a novel that blossoms, unfolding one petal at a time from a pivotal center. At that center are the Samuelsons, living in northern California, a family that begins with parents Phil (architect/builder) and Sybil (school teacher), and children Ellis, on the brink of adulthood, Katie, an angry high-achieving teen, and Sally, a kind artistic soul. Too quickly, Ellis is gone, and soon his pregnant girlfriend Julia and their daughter Eva are added, along with neighbours and co-workers who have been significant for the family. The novel is arranged almost like a series of short stories, taking place sometimes decades apart, involving a few, many, or all of the key characters in different circumstances. The force of love colours and moves the stories in a way that’s sometimes surprising and quite beautiful through the tragedies, griefs, betrayals, disappointments, and many joys and wonders of life. Also recommended.

OTHER: Several essays/articles:

“When a dog isn’t ‘just’ a dog: How it feels to have an old pet, anticipatory grief and the pain of unconditional love” by Stacey Heale in her Chaotic Hearts Club newsletter this week. “My heart wants to be spared the weight of saying goodbye to someone I love so entirely but this is what love costs. It’s what it always costs.”

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“The fight for Europe’s future” by Timothy Garton Ash in his History of the Present newsletter. “Everywhere, you have large parts of society, especially men and women without higher education and those living in poorer regions, who feel both economically and culturally neglected. Immigration is the hot-button issue on which populists focus all these discontents. Meanwhile, young voters fear their life prospects are less good than were their parents’, starting with the widespread problem of unaffordable housing. Many of them turn to anti-establishment parties, of right or left. Politicians of the liberal centre are struggling to come up with a credible election-winning counter-recipe. Some challenges, such as providing affordable housing, should be areas of core competence for the kind of rational policymaking on which liberals traditionally pride themselves. Others, such as working out what a 21st-century state should and should not do, call for a rethink comparable with that done by European social and Christian democrats after 1945.”

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A shitty little prayer for gloomy thinkers by ordained Lutheran pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber in her The Corners newsletter. It starts like this: “I woke up today exhausted after a full night’s sleep. / My 90 minute walk did not revive me, and a nice breakfast with lots of protein didn’t seem to do the trick either. / And before you ask, yes I’m fully hydrated, Lord. / Hydrated and weary AF. / And it’s getting harder not to freak out.”

Watching

This week we watched The Rules of the Game,” a 1939 French satirical comedy-drama film directed by Jean Renoir.” It’s a classic “comedy of manners [depicting] members of upper-class French society and their servants just before the beginning of World War II, showing their moral callousness on the eve of destruction.” We also started watching “Outrageous,” the new BritBox original TV show about the Mitford family in the 1930s, which is pretty good so far.

Connections & Community

Local Support: Shopped at the farmstand Wed., Thurs., and Sunday and at the local co-op on Thursday. Ordered flowers for my sister’s birthday from a local (to her) florist on Wed. Lunched outside at local bakery/café on Wed. and had breakfast outside there on Saturday. My husband volunteered at the local car museum for 8.75 hours this week.

Relationships: A friend (ND) returned a box fan we lent them and we chatted for 15 mins in our garage on Tues. I sent birthday gifts to my sister and a birthday card to a friend (RaS) on Monday. Gave a plant to a friend (RL) as a belated birthday gift on Thursday. Talked with my sister by phone for 25 mins on Saturday. I hosted the permaculture Zoom call on Thursday morning (5 of us), discussing another chapter of An Immense World by Ed Yong. Salon met on Friday afternoon for 2.5 hours in person in a friend’s gazebo (5 of us).

Endings/Harvests

Harvested chives, basil, romaine lettuce, shelling peas, and a few Sungold tomatoes from the garden this week. Also some thyme for the vinaigrette I made.