LIMINAL LIVING #83: 28 JULY to 3 AUGUST 2025

Art, Artisans, & Architecture, Books, Collector Garden, Community, Dreams & Sleep, Edible Gardening, Flowers, Food & Drink, Gardening, Harvest, Insects & Arachnids, Liminal Life, Pollinators, Slow Gardening & Living, Vernacular Landscape, Wildlife

LIMINAL LIVING #83: 28 JULY to 3 AUGUST 2025

August 3, 2025

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

Weather

Pretty typical early August weather this week, with high temperatures ranging from 90.3°F to 69.3°F, averaging 80.9°F, and lows ranging from 47.8°F to 66.4°F, averaging 57.3°F. It was very exciting to get over an inch of rain all day and evening on Thursday. Still, our part of NH is now “abnormally dry,” the ranking before drought.

Beginnings/Firsts

I saw my first snake in the garden this week, on Sunday, but we were both too surprised and moving away from each other too quickly to get a photo. It was a rather thick one, probably a garter snake.

Wild Things (Flora, Fauna, Fungi) in addition to others elsewhere in this post (click each for larger image)

Wandering

All in-town walking this week, mostly longer walks and sometimes more than one walk per day. I did wander to Concord, NH, on Wed., to visit a friend in the hospital and pick up some Indian food for us. And with two friends I wandered to a couple of other towns for lunch and consignment shopping on Friday.

walks and other wandering photos this week

Curiosity & Discoveries

I swung by the Concord Hospital cafeteria for the first time this week while visiting a friend there. Still haven’t tried the food but it looked promising. Also tried a new restaurant (situated by a river) with friends on Friday.

Finally, the “green headed coneflower” (Rudbeckia laciniata), a native that I planted last spring, bloomed. I was beginning to wonder if “green headed” just meant “leaf.” Now I can see why they are rudbeckias and not echinacea, even though their common name is coneflower. They are very tall, taller than I am.

Creating

I created sunlight! for the milkweeds and geraniums, by pruning the dwarf River King birch (more, a lot more) on Monday.

Repairing and Maintaining (everything but the house & yard)

Body/Mind: I worked out four times (4 hours) this week and got over 11,000 steps on six days (all but the rainy day), including five days over 14,000, three days over 15,000, and one day over 18,000. I attended Dharma Sunday via Zoom for two hours, with Lama Willa Baker leading meditation and both Lama Willa and Zoe Morris teaching on Mycelial Wisdom #3: The Myth of Transcendence. I had a negative Covid test on Thursday (before our permaculture get-together).

Gardening/Yard

I spent about 4 hours working in the garden this week, mostly watering as well as harvesting and a little weeding. My husband collected Monday’s brush piles (from the birch pruning, mostly) on Saturday.

some garden pics this week

Nesting

Cleaning/Maintenance: I vacuumed the kitchen on Monday. I cleaned the guest sheets and all the towels on Tuesday and I did clothes laundry at least once this week but forgot to note it.

Admin/Financial: I made hotel reservations on Tuesday for our nephew’s wedding in October. (Still need to make reservations at another hotel for some days after that event.)

Supplies: Ordered the Grow Gorgeous shampoo and conditioner I like on Tuesday.

Food: I made tuna salad which we had on arugula on Monday and Tuesday, with local corn on the cob and local cukes + tapenade. On Wed., while I was in Concord, I picked up Indian food for dinner that night, Thurs., Fri., and Saturday; we had local cucumbers and other veggies with it. Sunday I made Old Bay shrimp and jasmine rice and sautéed together summer squash (from our neighbour), our ‘Mardi Gras blend’ bush beans, vidalia onion, and some leftover green pepper. On Wed. night I made a lemon-tarragon potato salad from a Southern Living recipe for the permaculture get-together the next morning. (It took me five stores in three towns to find the fresh tarragon, which I used to grow but it disappeared about eight years ago. I should replant it.) (Negroni not included)

Sleeping & Dreaming

If you’ve been following my fitness tracker travails: I learned on Friday (via Reddit, I think) that the secret to what seems to be accurate measuring of sleep using the Samsung Galaxy Fit 3 is to set the heart rate measuring to continuous, not “every 10 minutes” as it had been set. That seems to have solved the problem with measuring both the number of sleep phases and also the amount of deep sleep. So this week’s data include inaccurate/incomplete measuring from Mon-Fri and better data since then. Next week’s data should be more typical.

For this week, my average actual time asleep was a little over 8 hours, with an average sleep score of 83.5 — but the scores varied widely, with a low of 69 on Wed. night (I was dinged for sleeping an excessive nine hours 😏) and scores in the 90s on three nights. I had 11 hours of REM and (more than) 4 hours of deep sleep.

Reading / Words & Ideas / Listening / Watching

Reading

BOOKS: This week I read Only One Life (Louise Rick #3, 2007) by Sara Blaedel. I hadn’t read the first two but have now received books 2 & 4 via interlibrary loan and I might read them. Only One Life (apparently also titled The Drowned Girl) was just OK. It’s a crime fiction novel, set in Denmark, around Copenhagen and Holbaek. Inspector Louise Rick is temporarily assigned to a Mobile Task Force team to investigate the death of a teenage girl, Samra, originally from Jordan, whose body has been found weighted down by a cement slab on the shore of a sound about an hour away from Copenhagen. The team, as well as news reporters including Louise’s friend Camilla, consider whether it might be an “honour” killing as they interview Samra’s friends and family. The pacing is a bit slow, the writing a bit prosaic, but the overall plot is fairly interesting. Up next are two by Chris Ould, books 2 & 3 in the Jan Reyna series set mostly on the Faroe Islands of Denmark.

OTHER

small changes that make your home much more luxurious:

Watching

We started watching “Death in Paradise” on BritBox this week. Enjoying it.

Also: Andrea Gibson’s poem, “When Death Came To Visit.”

Connections & Community

Local Support: We shopped at the farmstand almost daily this week, for their farm-grown corn on the cob, their cucumbers, their arugula, another local farm’s excellent blueberries — I think we went through a pint every other day. My husband bought a pair of shorts at the local consignment store on Sunday. He also volunteered at the local car museum for 9 hours or so this week and he drove a model T in the annual parade on Saturday. My friends and I ate at a local café together on Friday. I got takeout from a local Indian place in Concord and shopped at the Concord co-op on Wednesday (potatoes, lemons, and something else I can’t recall). We enjoyed the 3-day fair/parade events in town this weekend.

Relationships: Our neighbour (JL) gave us some summer squash and zucchini from his garden; they left for 10 days on Thursday and I’m watering his container plants (tomatoes, squash, zucchini, marigolds) while they’re away. Our permaculture group (eight members) met in person on Thursday for three hours to catch up, eat potluck food, and tour our friends’ (ED&SD) garden. Two friends (RL & ED) and I went to lunch and consignment store shopping on Friday afternoon. Chatted with a neighbour (AA) on Tuesday for 5-10 mins while we were walking. Chatted with another neighbour (RD) at the fair on Friday night as he waited in line with his grandkids for a carnival ride. I visited a friend (BUF) in the hospital on Wednesday for an hour. Waved at several acquaintances and friends who were in the parade on Saturday morning. Texted and called our catsitter (DO) re upcoming trips.

Donations: Made a donation to Long Island Bulldog Rescue on Wednesday.

Endings/Harvest

Harvested many tomatoes (Sungold, yellow pear, sweet millions), “Mardis Gras blend” bush beans, a few more garlic (still not ready), and some basil. Foraged many blueberries on walks.