Weekly recap of my ritual of existence in this liminal space called life. (See here for more info.)
- Weather
A variable week in weather (as in sleep, see below), with high temps ranging from 79.3°F to 48.0°F, averaging 63.4°F. Low temps ranged from 29.5°F to 56.7°F, averaging 43.2°F. We had our first freeze (and first frost, in places where there was enough moisture at the ground level) early on Friday morning, killing all the coleus and tomato plants and browning the witch hazel foliage overnight. We got 1.35 inches of rain on Tuesday night into Wednesday, much needed.
- Beginnings/Firsts
Besides having our first freeze (and frost) on Friday morning, we also had our first woodstove fire since May or June this week. Summer’s gone with a wave of hands🎶. I created an Oct. nature photos album on Wednesday and sent out an email to the list.
- Wild Things (Flora, Fauna, Fungi) in addition to others elsewhere in this post
Birds heard this week by Merlin (in NH) include white-throated sparrow, common yellowthroat, American crow, European starling, American goldfinch, golden-crowned kinglet, black-capped chickadee, and song sparrow.
- Wandering
We wandered home from Pennsylvania on Tuesday (another 9-hour car ride, which would have been 8 had we not stopped several times including for a brief lunch), after spending Monday visiting family and Longwood Gardens (again, for 5 more hours).
We also wandered to the bog on Saturday, and I walked around town most days.
Longwood on Monday – Kennett Square PA
and these from the Flower Walk (mostly annuals)
the bog
in town, including the permaculture garden at the college
- Curiosity & Discoveries
So many discoveries, i.e., things new to me (or so my brain thinks), at Longwood Gardens. Here are some of them from this trip.
curiosities …
I’ve seen this one before, the Dancing Nymphs at a 1915 garden party, displayed in Longwood’s DuPont House, and it always makes me smile.
I had not seen these tools, only a portion of those on display, used to create and maintain bonsai (such as the ones below).
- Creating
Not my creation but someone(s) created this wonderful monarch-themed mural in or near Kennett Square PA (we saw it on a road between there and Avondale):
- Repairing and Maintaining (me, the cat, the cars — everything but the house & yard)
Body/Mind: I worked out four times (4 hours) this week and walked over 10,000 steps on five days, over 14,000 on three days, and 17,658 steps on Monday. Both Tuesday and Wednesday’s steps were under 7,000, due to a. Tues., spending the day in a car and b. Wed., rain and catching up on things at home.
- Gardening/Yard
As mentioned, we had a freeze early on Friday morning which zapped the coleus and the tomato plants as well as things like the Mexican sunflower. Most of the hostas and firecracker ‘Vermillionaire’ annuals and nasturtiums are still doing OKish, and other annuals — calendula, annual purple sage, white alyssum, and gazania — are so far untouched. We had brought in the three hanging baskets pre-trip, and they’re alive and blooming in the (unheated) sunroom for now.
The only perennials blooming now are the last of the ‘Hot Lips’ turtleheads, the very last of the goldenrods, the ‘Bluebird’ asters (full of bees) and wild asters, lavender, some black-eyed Susans, and those green-headed coneflowers, which are actually Rudbeckias. The fading blooms of the hydrangeas continue to soften the landscape.
some garden pics this week
- Nesting
Cleaning/Maintenance: I did clothes laundry when we got home on Tuesday and again on Saturday. I vacuumed the dining room, living room, and family rooms on Friday, and carpet cleaned them, and I vacuumed the kitchen on Sunday. My husband removed the two A/Cs from the windows this week and worked on rehabbing the rusting and mildewing iron stovetop humidifier.
When I turned on the heat in the dining/living rooms for Salon on Friday, I noticed that the Stiebel Eltron wall heater in the dining room wasn’t working and worse, it had somehow burned many small holes into the carpet under it during the summer⁉️ My husband spent 2.5 hours taking it apart and looking it over and then ordered a new one on Sunday from eBay which should be here mid-next-week. (Our other Stiebel Eltron, in the master bathroom, has been a gem and a workhorse.) We’ll need to re-carpet (or install hardwood in?) two large rooms.
Financial/Admin: We dropped off the rental car on Wednesday with no issues (though the bill for the automatic tolls hasn’t arrived yet).
Food: Enjoyed both days of breakfast (Monday and Tues.) at the Fairfield Marriott in Kennett Square (included with room). We stay there whenever we’re in the area and it’s never let us down — and it’s only a few minutes from Longwood Gardens.
We had dinner at La Tavola in Kennett Square, on the patio at 7 p.m., on Monday night (I had apps, including mixed olives, roasted asparagus, the bell pepper arancini, and artichokes with peas, cannellini beans, mint aioli; and my husband had one of the specials, Old Bay handmade fettucine, salmon, scallops, mussels, and a lobster cream sauce, with asparagus). We also had a good view of the almost-full moon.
Once home on Tuesday night we ordered Chinese takeout, which we ate for dinner through Friday. I made a cacio e pepe with artichoke hearts, garlic, and peas on Saturday (husband added grilled chicken to his) and we had that on Sunday too, both days with raw local veggies.
- Sleeping & Dreaming
A variable week of sleep, with a high sleep time of 9 hours 6 mins and a low of 5 hours 59 mins, averaging a pretty typical 7 hours 48 mins. Sleep score inflation continues, with an average of 95.4 for the week. REM sleep accounted for 14 hours 45 mins and deep sleep for slightly less than 8 hours, much needed.
I’ve been sleeping very soundly lately, perhaps because of the addition some nights of Traditional Medicinals Nighty Night Extra tea (with valerian root, which interests the cat strangely) and an allergy pill (Zyrtec). I don’t remember to do either every night, though. I’ve been taking magnesium glycinate nightly, religiously, for over a year and noticed benefits for sleep among other things immediately.
- Reading / Words & Ideas / Listening / Watching
Reading
BOOKS – None finished this week. I’m in the middle of Nele Neuhaus’s I Am Your Judge (2014) in the Kirchhoff & Bodenstein crime series set in and near Frankfurt, Germany.
OTHER
This was an interesting essay, What Can Positive Thinking Do For A Cancer Patient?, by Kirtan D. Nautiyal (a medical oncologist) in Aeon. Not positive thinking alone, and it didn’t assuage the patient’s anxiety but it did keep him from despair. There’s a lot packed into this piece. Here’s one part that stood out for me: Joel Evans, an OBGYN on the board of directors at the Center for Mind/Body Medicine, told Nautiyal “that in the work he did with cancer patients, he emphasised acceptance of current reality over projecting a superficial sense of happiness. To achieve this equanimity, we had to give up our sense of control. We needed to stay true to our natures,” to our sense of purpose, to our own psychic energy.
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Handy?
Watching
Watched the new episode of Only Murders on Tuesday night and season 6 into season 7 of Death in Paradise the rest of the week.
- Connections & Community
Local Support: We ate at a local Kennett Square PA restaurant on Monday night and got takeout from a local Chinese restaurant here on Tuesday. Also bought goodies and had lunch one day on the patio at the local bakery-café. I shopped at the regional co-op on Wed. while we were in the area, and also on Wed. at the local farmstand (lime, crackers, their bell peppers, their broccoli). I dropped off clothing for consignment at the local consignment shop on Thursday. My husband volunteered at the local car museum this week for 10.5 hours — next week is his last week of that for the year.
Relationships: While in PA, we visited with my husband’s brother at his house for 1.5 hours on Monday and briefly talked with his cousin while at Longwood Gardens (she is a longtime volunteer in the waterlily court).
I ran into a friend (ED) at the farmstand on Wed. and we chatted with a neighbour (RD) at a Cars & Coffee event on Saturday. My husband visited friends (ND&TD) for an hour on Friday and came home with a grinder and a manual for the scroll saw they gave him recently. (Why does everyone’s surname start with D?) I hosted Salon here on Friday for two hours with seven of us (the other one was in Austria).
- Endings/Harvests
Bye, summer.
- All This Useless Beauty
the pink foliage of this epimedium (from a plant sale – it blooms white)
this tricyrtis (toadlily) “Sinonome’ at Longwood, in masses!
not a huge Anthurium fan but this pink-green version is a bit compelling
these quill mums (Chrysanthemumx morifolium ‘Carousel’)
these Limelight hydrangeas and twisty branches
the light in the West Conservatory at 5 p.m.
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