A Moveable Garden

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

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• Weather

We got some rain this week, about 2.15 inches in all, most of it on Monday and Wednesday. We’re still shown in extreme drought but the latest map was recorded on Tuesday, so it doesn’t include Wednesday’s rain. [The maps, which are posted on Thursdays, include weather as of each Tuesday at 8a.m.]

High temperatures ranged from 59.7°F to 47.1°F — remember that fewer than three weeks ago we were hitting high 70°Fs — with an average high of 53.9°F. Lows ranged from 30.7°F to 48.4°F, averaging 38.4°F. It’s chilly on cloudy days and almost warm feeling on sunny days (the insects agree). I’ve been wearing my lighter (of two) winter coats all week and I stopped wearing footie socks a couple of weeks ago, changing them out for heavier crew and boot socks (all Darn Tough brand).

• Beginnings/Firsts

New primary care provider, hopefully (but unlikely) she’ll stay!

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

some birds Merlin heard in the yard or nearby this week

• Wandering 

I walked in town pretty much every day, even on the rainy days when it was pouring buckets. I also walked with a friend at the lake on Thursday and my husband and I walked another nearby mostly flat trail (slowly for this broken toe) on Saturday.

in town

lake

trail

• Curiosity & Discoveries

A sad discovery while I was doing a garden clean-up this week, a monarch butterfly that remained trapped in its chrysalis on an early figwort stem; don’t know if the failure to launch was due to disease, predation, or, I think most likely, weather becoming too cold. But heartbreaking that it got that far — survived and matured as a caterpillar, created a chrysalis in a safe spot and matured inside it, wings formed — and then: the end, no flying in the spacious air for you.

• Creating

As usual this time of year, I’m creating plantable space where there is none in my yard, through lots of frustrating digging and amending of soil. Sunny spots are especially hard to come by.

• Repairing and Maintaining the human(s), the cat, and the cars

Body/Mind: I worked out three times (3 hours) this week and walked more than 10,000 steps on five days, more than 12,000 steps on four days, and a high of 17,016 one day. I used the treadmill one day for 35 mins (2.3 miles). I participated in Dharma Sunday via Zoom for almost two hours, with Lama Liz leading meditation and teaching on Forest Teachings III: Breathing with Reverence. I had my annual physical on Monday with a new PCP (my 7th in 15 years?), blood work and a pneumonia vaccine to follow.

• Gardening/Yard 

I worked in the garden quite a lot this week, a little too much because my back is a bit wonky.

My Fedco order of a pound of Georgian Crystal garlic, a half-pound of Czech Broadleaf garlic (new to me), and 10 each of Avant Garde Double Early Tulip (cream-coloured), Valdivia Double Early Tulip (copper orange), and Palmyra Double Early Tulip (“moody dark burgundy”) arrived on Monday; I planted all of the garlic that I could fit in my sunny spot on Thursday (I gave the rest away to three friends) and half the tulips, and on Sunday I planted most of the rest of the tulips (I gave three away) as well as 12 fritillaria meleagris bulbs and 10 snowdrops that I ordered this week from our conservation district and received (a fortuitous in-person delivery!) on Saturday morning. (I also got 10 blue Anemone ‘Mr Fokker’ which from what I can tell should be planted in my colder climate in spring, not fall, so they are in a cool dark dry spot for at least six, probably seven, months).

Along with planting — in places that were decidedly not easy to shovel loose the 8-10 inches of soil needed for the tulips — I also did about 90% of the vegetable garden clean-up. I bought two bales of straw from the local farmstand on Thursday to cover the garlic and some of the other bulbs. (Usually we use chopped up leaves from a big Norway maple for mulch but it hasn’t dropped its leaves yet and we didn’t have any left over from last year.) I used the last of the Coast of Maine lobster compost and also a large bucket from our composter in planting the tulips (in pretty poor soil).

My husband took down the vegetable garden fence, drained and put away the rain barrels, and put away the Solo stove, solar lights, (non-heated) birdbath, and Japanese lantern on Thursday and Friday.

some of what’s happening in the garden this week

• Nesting

Cleaning/Maintenance: I did clothes laundry on Monday (and also Friday?) and towel laundry on Tuesday. I vacuumed the kitchen, laundry area, and hall on Wed. My husband took the old heater to the metal dump and also did the regular dump/recycling run on Sunday.

Financial/Admin: This isn’t exactly that but I bought a bunch of Jacquie Lawson Advent calendars (online) on Sunday to give away and of course I downloaded and starting playing with mine. I also resubscribed to the NYT for $1/week.

Food: My husband spent a lot of time in the kitchen this week! He made two loaves of honey wheat bread and some pumpkin spice donuts (the latter from King Arthur mix) on Monday; he made beer (from a kit he found at the dump giveaway shed) and yogurt on Wednesday; and he made chicken stock from the remains of a rotisserie chicken on Thursday.

For dinners, I made that Martha Stewart potato & herb risotto on Monday, using local parsley and potatoes and our thyme and garlic; we had that with local spinach sautéed with garlic. And we ate it again on Tuesday, but this time with sautéed local broccoli and local cauliflower with soy sauce (and my husband added roasted chicken to his). Wednesday I had the risotto, adding sautéed shrimp, while my husband had leftover pasta with chicken, and we both had sautéed local broccoli with soy sauce. Thursday was veggie burgers with local arugula, mac & cheese, and raw local peppers and carrots. Friday, still in a risotto mood, I made a sofrito risotto, with corn, local red bell peppers, and adding Old Bay shrimp, which we also enjoyed on Saturday, along with sautéed local spinach and our garlic. On Sunday, which was ‘Halloween’ in our town (when the businesses and a few residences on Main St. give out candy), we got takeout from a local restaurant, which was a mistake because the roads were closed at pickup time but eventually we got there (walking); I had rather skimpy cod tacos and curly fries and he had a burger with cheddar, bacon, and onion rings.

Supplies: Deliveries this week: Fedco (see gardening); Amazon S&S; Nuts.com (roasted macadamias, dried pears, dried apricots); snowblower belts and other parts for winter prep; the pot protectors (six of them) that Lodge sent gratis after one of ours met its early demise.

• Sleeping & Dreaming

I feel like the last week or two has been excessively dreamy (which I like, but it makes it hard to get up in the mornings because I’m enjoying dreaming so much). I’ve averaged 7 hours 20 mins asleep this week, for a Samsung Fit 3 score of 97 (whatever), with REM sleep accounting for 14 hours and 24 minutes this week and deep sleep for only 6 hours 5 mins, a little low but still OK; from what I’ve gleaned online, adults need at least 45 mins of deep sleep per night and up to 1-1/2 hours per night, to optimise blood sugar levels and the function and repair of the brain (cognition and memory), immune system, hormones, and tissues, muscles, and bones.

• Reading / Words & Ideas / Listening / Watching  

Reading

BOOKS: I finished The Good Liar (2025) by Denise Mina. Forensic examiner Claudia O’Sheil is to give a speech at an elegant fundraiser about how her well-respected blood spatter test was instrumental in putting the accused, a high status ne’er-do-well named William Stewart, behind bars in the brutal and sensationalised double murder of his father and his father’s girlfriend (and their guard dog) a year ago. But she knows her test is faulty and she knows that some very powerful people had a vested interest in convicting Stewart. So she plans to tell another story from the podium, despite the high cost to herself and those she loves. But will she? The novel is told in the present (at the event) and in the past, slowly revealing what happened during the past year. Compelling but also a hard read for me as Claudia unwittingly becomes more and more a pawn in the game others are playing.

OTHER

Hopeful news for those with the dry form of macular degeneration, even though the study size was tiny (38 people): Experts hail ‘remarkable’ success of electronic implant in restoring sight: Sight of 84% of people with form of age-related macular degeneration restored after being fitted with device by Denis Campbell in The Guardian

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The Myth of the Sommelier: Is there an art to wine tasting? Do the best tasters really know best? (Cremieux Recueil newsletter) This is a very long essay, packed with history, natural science, high-level math!, computer code (in the notes), and opinion and will only interest some. I found it worth reading. Or you can just skip to the final paragraph.

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Listening

Some songs Shazam’d this week

Watching

We watched some of season 8 of “Death in Paradise” (BritBox) and on other nights a “House Hunters” paired with a “Keeping Up Appearances” (both dvr’d). Also “Only Murders in the Building” (Hulu) on Tuesday. And some football.

• Connections &  Community

Local Support: Bought broccoli, peppers, spinach, and straw from local farmstand this week. Ate lunch at local bakery/café on Saturday. Got takeout from local restaurant on Sunday night.

Relationships: Poetry group (five of us) met on Tuesday afternoon; I was there for 1.5 hours, then visited with a friend (ND) at her house afterward. Chatted with a neighbour (GR) and his dog (T) for 5-10 minutes on the sidewalk on the way home. Had phone calls with a few folks (BB, RL) on Wed. morning. Thursday I walked at the lake with a friend (ED). Friday, Salon met with six of us for 2 hours. I chatted with a couple of people at the grocery store (M, LT) later. We talked with a couple of people at our friend’s memorial service on Saturday morning (AS, LW). I offered the garlic I couldn’t plant in my yard and a few tulips to friends and gave it all away to three over the weekend, yay (RL, NR, SCh).

• Endings 

We attended the memorial service on Saturday morning for our friend (DA) who died last week.

• All This Useless Beauty

closer view of the red oak foliage shown above (“in town”), in late afternoon sunlight

at the lake on Thursday

the yellow in the rock wall plants

fruit guild around 5 p.m. on Wednesday