LIMINAL LIVING #123: 4 MAY TO 10 MAY 2026

Birds, Bulbs, Collector Garden, Community, Flowers, Food & Drink, Gardening, Liminal Life, Poems, Slow Gardening & Living, Wetlands, Wilderness and Woods, Wildflowers, Wildlife

LIMINAL LIVING #123: 4 MAY TO 10 MAY 2026

May 10, 2026

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

Weather

The average high temp this week was 61.4°F, ranging from 78.6°F to 49.8°F. The average low was 38.4°F, ranging from 31.1°F to 49.1°F. We received 1.86 inches of rain this week, much needed, and hopefully more to come.

Beginnings/Firsts

We saw our first blue heron for the year at the lake on Monday.

On Sunday we started rewatching (4th time for me, I think) “Brideshead Revisted,” the 1981 TV miniseries with Jeremy Irons, Anthony Andrews, Diana Quick, and Claire Bloom, among a start-studded cast.

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

Merlin-heard birds this week, around here, at the lake, in Peterborough NH. We saw the osprey at the lake. The northern rough-winged swallow pinged multiple times near the river in Peterborough.

Wandering

We walked around the lake on Monday, on some local wooded trails on Tuesday (where we counted 33 painted trilliums), and around town the rest of the week as time and weather permitted — I have started taking more “vernacular landscape” photos, showing places people have shaped through building infrastructure and otherwise altering the landscape. I also went to Peterborough, NH for a permaculture meeting on Thurs. at one of our member’s and after that visited with a college friend who lives there.

in town

Peterbrough NH

wooded trails

lake

Curiosity & Discoveries

This was a discovery for me, a very spacious, clean, neat, and well-equipped workshop at a co-housing community in Peterborough, NH.

Creating

Creating changes to the garden as I go, transplanting what needs to be moved into whatever space is free and might sustain the plant. Lots more of that upcoming. Also “created” time each morning this week for 20-30 minutes of meditation.

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

Humans: I participated in Dharma Sunday for two hours with Lama Willa leading meditation and teaching focusing on the goddess (Buddhist archetype) Tara, who is fierce, alive, wise, loving, awakening. I worked out only 2 times this week. This week I walked more than 10,000 steps on five days, more than 11,000 on 3 days, and over 14,000 steps on one day, and I treadmilled for a half-hour (2 miles) one day. We ping-ponged one evening, 20 mins. From now for the next month or more I’m juggling working out, walking, and intensive gardening (along with everything else), and of the three gardening is the one whose timing — physically, in the garden, as well as time spent thinking about it and planning — is most urgent.

Cars: My husband solved the BMW problem (dash warning lights that wouldn’t go off after battery replaced) on Tues. with a scanner cable he obtained for the purpose.

Nesting

Cleaning/Maintenance: I watered the houseplants on Thurs and vacuumed the kitchen on Wednesday. Did a load of clothes laundry on Wednesday too. My husband did the dump/recycling trip and disposed of some car oil this week, and he cleaned both air purifiers and the humidifier (which can be put away for now).

Food: Leftovers on Monday with raw veg and dip. Tuesday we had dinner early (or lunch late) outside at a local restaurant.

Wednesday I made my recent favourite, the penne-asparagus-pine nut dish, and we had that on Thursday night as well. Veggie burger with arugula on Friday, with herbed rice pilaf and local fresh spinach with garlic.

We got takeout spinach-olive-artichoke pizza and salad (to which I added things) from a local pizza place on Sat. and we ate that on Sunday too. (Dinner-making also suffers during the intense gardening weeks.)

Garden

I spent 1.5 hours weeding the shade garden on Tues. and 2.25 hours transplanting a bunch of chives and filipendula that were where we want to the place the raised bed kitchen garden next week, and thinning the arugula seedlings. My husband transplanted geranium and ferns from the kitchen garden area and he finished putting together the metal (Vego) raised bed in its appointed spot. We bought a new Red Haven peach tree on Wed. at an independent nursery, to replace one of the 16-yr-old peaches and I picked up my preordered bare rooted plants (6 false Solomons Seal, 6 black cohosh, 3 Virginia bluebells, and 3 royal fern) from a local native plant nursery on Sat. They will be planted soon.

in the garden

mischievous 5-month old Oliver and George, sheep at the native plant nursery

Sleeping & Dreaming

A good week’s sleep, with all sleep scores in the 90s, including two 96s! Average sleep score was 93.6. My per-night sleep time average was 7-1/2 hours, with REM accounting for 13 hours 50 mins and deep sleep for 9 hours 9 mins.

Reading / Words & Ideas / Listening / Watching

Reading

BOOKS: I finished Tara French’s The Keeper (2026), the last in the Cal Hooper trilogy, set in the Irish townland of Ardnakelty, a rural spot where Hooper, a former Chicago cop, settled two books back (The Searcher, The Hunter) and is now becoming part of the community, making furniture with formerly wayward teenager Trey Reddy and ostensibly engaged to self-exiled widower Lena Dunne. When a teenaged girl goes missing hours after coming to Lena as well as others for advice, and then is found dead in a river, most believe her death to be suicide but suspicion also falls on her boyfriend, the son of a bigshot meat-packing plant owner who has the Garda in his pocket. Soon sides are drawn and Cal has to make a choice. Meanwhile Lena, who is being threatened, pursues her own lines of inquiry, both she and Cal keeping some of their actions and what they learn secret from the other. Tightly plotted, with complex characters subtly drawn, the writing poetic and the conversations pitch-perfect, this final installment is a gem.

OTHER

I like it all but especially the last three lines.

✨✨✨

I read quite a few good articles on the recent hantavirus outbreak aboard a cruise ship. These were two of the best IMO:

What Happened on the Hantavirus Cruise, According to a Doctor On Board: A passenger helped manage the outbreak after the ship’s doctor on the MV Hondius fell ill, by Katherine J. Wu in Atlantic, 7 May 2026.

Hantavirus landing page 2.0.: Updated insights from the WHO, CDC (finally), International Hantavirus Society, The Evidence Collective, and more, by Jeremy Faust MD at Inside medicine, 9 May 2026.

Watching

We watched a couple Waiting for God episodes, a couple House Hunters, a Death in Paradise, a Wallander, and on Sunday started watching the 1981 TV miniseries “Brideshead Revisited” again. (All but House Hunters are on BritBox.)

Connections & Community

Local Support: I ordered two birthday gifts (flowers, gift card) from local (to them) establishments this week. We attended a presentation on Natural Burial in a nearby town on Tuesday night — it’s a practice that many towns are working to offer to residents (several friends and acquaintances were also there).

We ate lunch at a local nursery’s café on Wed. and ran into an acquaintance there; we also bought a peach tree.

I met a college friend for snacks outside an independent and local (to her) café/bookstore on Thurs. Bought an item on Friday and ate breakfast on Sat. at a local café/bakery. We got takeout pizza and salad from the local pizza place on Sat. night. On Sunday I bought two hanging baskets and three annual plants at the local farmstand.

Relationships: Ordered birthday flowers and a food/wine basket to a friend (JN) on Fri. for her birthday on Sunday and a local restaurant gift card for another friend (CW) for her birthday on Tues. We visited with a friend (ND) for 45 mins on Monday and picked up friends (E&SD) from their bus on Monday night. We saw friends at the Natural Burial presentation (three of them presenting) on Tues. evening (MH, JS, MC, and NR). Chatted briefly with an acquaintance (GB) at the nursery café on Wed. I attended a permaculture meeting (6 of us) in Peterborough NH at one of our member’s homes on Thurs. for 2.5 hours and then visited with a college friend (RLJ) for almost two hours after that. Friday I attended Salon (6 of us) at a friend’s on a lake for a couple of hours. Our neighbours (B&SF) returned home on Friday after 4.5 months in Florida, yay!