Weekly recap of my ritual of existence in this liminal space called life. (See here for more info.)
- Weather
The big story this week is that we received about 3.35 inches of rain plus another 1/2 inch or so of snow & sleet. If only April showers would continue at this pace. ☔
The average high temperature this week was 50.9°F, with highs ranging from 61.9°F to 36.5°F. The average low was 33.2°F, the range from 28.4°F to 38.8°F. Definitely feeling more springy.
- Beginnings/Firsts
I sent my monthly email on Sat. to the folks on the nature photos email list with links to the new month’s nature photos as well as last month’s.
- Wild Things (Flora, Fauna, Fungi) in addition to others elsewhere in this post
TOP row: red squirrel; mourning dove blending into leaves; song sparrow. 2nd row: grey fox; white-tailed deer; raccoon (all on motion cameras). BOTTOM row: chipmunk; American goldfinch; fox sparrow.
- Wandering
I walked outside five days this week (not on Easter and not on the day we got 1-1/2″ of heavy rain). Most of those days were long walks (4-mile RT) in town, one was the 3-mile loop around the lake.
in-town
lake
Merlin-heard birds at the lake
- Curiosity & Discoveries
There are always curious things at Ocean State Job Lots (a little too curious … that’s why they end up there). None of these seems appetising.
- Creating
Still in my head.
- Repairing and Maintaining the human(s), the cat, and the cars
Human: I walked over 11,000 steps on five days, over 13,000 steps on four days, over 14,000 steps on three days, and a high step-count day of 16,087. I worked out four times (four hours) this week, stretching, dancing, working with weights. We ping-ponged for 1.5 hours this week (we had a couple nights of other evening things to do). I spent time in the garden!
- Nesting
Cleaning/Maintenance: I vacuumed the kitchen and family room on Tuesday. On Wed. I watered the houseplants, and vacuumed furniture crevices and tidied up in the family room, and dusted and tidied up in the bedroom. I did a load of towel laundry on Saturday and a load of clothes laundry on Sunday. My husband made the dump run (mostly to get rid of the litter we picked up on Mon.) on Wednesday. We bought new seasonal welcome mats on Wednesday.
Financial/Admin: On Monday I cancelled my professional Zoom plan (effective end of May). On Tuesday I signed up for a digital Boston Globe subscription for $1 for 6 months, signed up for our county’s property fraud alert, and worked on my Advance Directive. On Friday I sent our financial advisor some comments and questions on our recent financial needs review.
Supplies: We picked up a few large plastic containers at Ocean State Job Lots, a localish off-price chain store, on Wed., when we got the welcome mats. I ordered a vintage lambswool J. Crew sweater (almost the same as one I own already, different colour) off eBay on Wed. when it was at a reasonable price (and the seller offered 20% off that).
Food: Monday we had the leftover cavatappi-tuna dish with sautéed local spinach + garlic. Tuesday, the leftovers again, this time with sautéed broccolini + garlic. On Wed. I made the penne-asparagus-pine nut dish again, to which my husband added turkey, and we had raw veg and humus. Same on Thursday. On Good Friday my husband had his homemade turkey soup sans turkey (just veggies and rice), and sourdough bread, and I had leftover plain cavatappi pasta sautéed in marinara sauce with corn, red beans, kalamatas, and garlic (yummy!), and we had raw veggies and humus. It was veggie burgers on Saturday, with green lettuces, and sautéed local spinach + garlic, and Annie’s mac + cheese. And Sunday we got Chinese takeout, which will last us most of next week.
For Easter, my husband made crêpes Suzette, a favourite of mine, and I made a veggie scramble and we each enjoyed our different versions of sausage (his maple links and mine soy patties).
He also made three baguettes on Wednesday, two of which we dispersed to friends.
- Garden 🍃🪻🌷🌿
Yes, the gardening category returns! I emailed a landscaper on Sat. about some projects we’d like help with this spring, and also on Sat. my husband and I each spent about an hour gardening, he pruning dead wood from the large apple tree and I mostly pruning and cutting back shrubs and also checking how things fared over the winter.
in the garden this week
- Sleeping & Dreaming
On Thursday overnight my fitness band’s battery drained, so I didn’t get legitimate sleep data for that night. For the six nights when I did, I averaged 7 hours 55 mins of sleep per night. Sleep score average was 90.5, which included one 75 score night (the rest were all in the 90s). REM sleep accounted for 12 hours 41 mins over those six nights and deep sleep for exactly 8 hours.
- Reading / Words & Ideas / Listening / Watching
New Word – Found on Sunday in Strangers by Belle Burden – treen
Reading
BOOKS: I read the very popular The Correspondent (2025) by Virginia Evans, a novel written entirely in letters, including emails, by a woman, Sibyl, in her 70s, divorced, a former lawyer for about 30 years, living in Annapolis, MD. I enjoyed this book, which details Sibyl’s life over about seven years (2012-2019, plus a few letters after that) as she struggles with regrets and challenges from her past, difficult relationships (especially with her daughter), her own boundaries, rules, and bluntness and their effect on others, as she also finds herself opening to new people, relationships, and circumstances, in her own time and in her own way. The writing is spot-on, the array of letters (to and from) thoughtfully ordered, and the characters complex yet legible. Overall an uplifting book that grapples with some difficult and intricately nuanced emotions and interactions in a way that’s moving and satisfying.
I’ve started Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage (2026) by Belle Burden.
OTHER:
This essay by Kelton Wright in her Shagrilogs newsletter on Sunday: In case you’re etiolating (and you probably are) – You can name the problem perfectly and still wake up inside it, from which:
We all know insight and change are not the same thing, and yet it’s very easy to live as if they are—to believe that if you can just understand something well enough, you’ll naturally start doing it differently. But watch what actually changes things in the world, and it’s never understanding. A river doesn’t reroute itself because it finally grasps hydrology. Elk don’t return to a valley because someone explained the benefits. They return because the wolves came back, and the wolves changed the movement patterns, and the movement changed the grazing, and the grazing changed what grew, and what grew changed the riverbanks—and twenty years later, the river itself had moved. That process has a name: a trophic cascade. It works entirely without comprehension.
Change in living systems doesn’t come from insight. It comes from something altering the conditions—a new constraint introduced, a pressure shifted, a small interaction changed in ways that compound over time into something unrecognizable from the outside.
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Listening
Shazam’d songs this week, which just means I heard them.
Watching
We watched some episodes of International House Hunters & House Hunters, Waiting for God, and an episode of “Wallander” on Sat. Also some golf on Sunday.
- Connections & Community
Local Support: We picked up litter in town on Monday for 1.5 hours on “our route” (assigned by the head of our rogue litter pickup gang). Need to do it again soon. Overall we collected three buckets and five bags of trash, plus a couple of larger items.
Shopped at the farm stand — now open every day but Sunday — on Monday for spinach, celeriac-beet humus dip, lemon, lime, crackers — and two free daikon radishes.
Relationships: I hosted the permaculture group at my house (6 of us) on Thursday for over two hours, our first in-person regular potluck meeting (not party) since Covid began, when we started Zooming for that reason and have continued so that we can include far-flung members. Two members who live a distance away (an hour or more) were able to join us, which was great.
Salon met on Friday with five of us for almost two hours. I sent a number of Jacquie Lawson Easter cards on Sunday to friends and family. Ran into a friend (LV) at the grocery and chatted for 10 mins on Friday evening. My husband and I delivered baguettes to two friends (LD and ND, no relation) and while delivering to the latter spent about 20 minutes chatting with ND (and her visiting daughter SW) and came home with some Indian atta flour they shared with us (for making naan, roti, et al.).
Donations: Renewed our memberships at The Arnold Arboretum (Jamaica Plain, Boston, MA) and Maine Audubon this week.
- Endings
Bye bye Zoom business plan!
- All This Useless Beauty
Emily Nunn’s photo of salad fixins feels like a refreshing breath
blues and tree bones
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