LIMINAL LIVING #125: 18 MAY TO 24 MAY 2026

Bulbs, Collector Garden, Community, Flowers, Food & Drink, Garden Projects, Garden Work, Gardening, Insects & Arachnids, Liminal Life, Planting Trees and Shrubs, Slow Gardening & Living, Soil & Compost, Wetlands

LIMINAL LIVING #125: 18 MAY TO 24 MAY 2026

May 24, 2026

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

Weather

The highest high temp and the lowest high temp varied by almost 40°F this week, from 86.5°F on Tuesday to 47.8°F on Sunday. The overall average high temperature was 69.2°F. The lows varied by 25°F, from 36°F on Friday to 60.6°F on Wednesday, averaging 47.7°F. We had 1.04 inches of rain, almost all of it on Sunday (when we also had a woodstove fire from noon until bedtime). We’re still in a severe drought, even with the rains of last week.

Beginnings/Firsts

My husband mowed the lawn for the first time this year on Wednesday (beyond the narrow strips near existing garden beds that he mowed Sunday night to prep for the edging the landscaper did this week).

The new peach tree (semi-dwarf Red Haven) was planted on Tuesday.

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

Wandering

I walked in town six days this week and at the bog on one of those days too. Sunday was too rainy and cold.

in town

bog

Curiosity & Discoveries

this gizmo on the siding Thursday

Creating

I meditated five times this week. Forgot on Monday and Thursday! I guess I haven’t created a habit yet.

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

Humans: I worked out three times (3 hours) this week and walked more than 14,000 steps on six days, including five days over 15,000 and two over 18,000, with a high step day of 19,244. I did manage to get in walks most days and the walking, weeding, and shoveling of gardening accounted for some of the steps as well. I treadmilled on Sunday for 3 miles (45 mins), mostly just to warm up. We ping-pinged once, for 25 minutes. I participated in Dharma Sunday via Zoom with Ji Huang Padma leading meditation and teaching on “Branching Streams Flow On in the Dark.”

Nesting

Cleaning/Maintenance: Not much occurred this week. I did spend 40 minutes vacuuming the family room, kitchen, living and dining rooms, laundry room, and two hallways on Thursday, and I watered the houseplants that day too. I did clothes laundry on Tuesday.

Financial/Admin: I took my revised Advance Directive to the local hospital for (free) notarising and scanning into MyChart on Monday.

Supplies: I bought a (new) colourful tablecloth for $5 at a big annual church yard sale on Saturday morning (and two M&M cookies). I ordered dried apricots, English walnuts, and single-serve GORP snacks from Nuts.com on Monday with free shipping. On Wed., we bought three bags of dark mulch, two bags of Coast of Maine Quoddy Mix compost, and wood and furring strips from a local hardware store for my husband to make the deer-protector lid he’ll attach to the new raised bed.

Food: The penne-asparagus-pine nut-shrimp dish on Monday, with celery, carrots, radishes and humus. On Tuesday it was so hot I made a tuna Niçoise salad for dinner (tuna, kalamata olives, potatoes, hard-boiled egg, steamed green beans, cucumbers and radishes, lettuce, dressing), with homemade sourdough bread. Wednesday we had Monday’s leftovers and the same on Thurs. with the addition of sautéed artichoke hearts and more shrimp. Friday I made Old Bay haddock, rice pilaf, and steamed asparagus, and we had that on Sunday too (both times with some raw veggies), and in between it was grilled hot dogs (soy or beef), mac & cheese, and sautéed broccoli.

Garden

This was the week the landscaper we hired a month or so ago was here to edge and expand the garden beds and plant/transplant some trees and shrubs. He worked on Mon. and Tues. from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and finished up on Wed. from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. Tuesday and Wednesday were two of the hottest days of the year so far and he worked hard. I had to be up by 6 a.m. those three days to meet him at 7 because on the first day, though we had used lawn paint to outline the shape and size of the edging & expanding, we needed to discuss it with him (it was actually quite a change from what we had discussed in April) and on Tues. and Wed. we were collaborating and coordinating on some transplants and of course I’d changed my mind about one or two things we’d discussed on Monday.

Here are some shots of the bigger and cleaner beds (and the sod piles on Monday, which he took off site):

One thing we thought we were going to do right up until Tuesday morning was move the sand cherry to a new spot in the yard but we realised that a. there really wasn’t a good alternative spot (the original one I’d planned is a no-go until a big tree is removed from nearby, which won’t be until June, by someone else), b. the sand cherry was blooming its heart out where it is, and c. one primary reason for moving it — it’s in the way when we harvest one of the peach trees — was no longer an issue as that peach tree died over the winter. So it remains.

I spent a lot of time gardening this week, 16 hours over five days. I weeded the lilac bed (2/3 of it), the front beds, shade garden, back border, side yard beds, vegetable garden, and fruit guild (quite a bit more to do in most of those); transplanted 10 or more perennials; watered everything and mulched many things that were planted/transplanted; and worked on clearing more invasives from the rock wall. My husband moved the weeding piles I made to the back and he power washed and positioned the rain barrels. He also mowed the entire lawn for the first time this year on Wednesday.

other garden pics this week

Sleeping & Dreaming

I slept an average of 7 hours and 19 minutes this week, a bit low, but my average (Samsung Fit 3) sleep score was 90.7. I was in REM sleep for 13 hours 25 mins and in deep sleep for only 6 hours 47 mins, also low. If you’ve read the Garden section, you may understand why this wasn’t my best week for snoozing.

Reading / Words & Ideas / Listening / Watching

Reading

BOOKS

I finished reading I Refuse (2012) by Per Petterson. I gave it three out of five stars. As a NYT review of the book correctly notes, “this is a novel that requires some degree of self-assembly.” It’s a moody, layered story about two men who long ago were very close boyhood friends but who haven’t seen each other in 35 years — until a chance meeting on a fishing bridge outside Oslo, where wealthy Tommy, driving an expensive car, comes across down-and-out Jim, who is night-fishing with some others. The story is told in the present (2006) and in the past (1960s-1970s) by both Tommy and Jim, sometimes the same event related by each. Missing fathers is a theme of the story, as are pivotal moments that are almost unspoken and almost passed over even as their emotional consequences are decisive again and again. A paragraph from The Guardian’s review is incisive: “As Tommy asks in middle age: ‘Is time like an empty sack you can stuff any number of things into, does it never go just from here to there, but instead in circles, round and round, so that every single time the wheel has turned, you are back where you started.’ Petterson’s signature technique lies in drawing the most zigzag line imaginable through narrative chronology but the effect is not of confusion, rather of a dense, layered complexity: it is the realist novel form’s mimetic faithfulness to life itself.” I respect the writing but the story didn’t engage me fully.

OTHER

Watching

After we finished watching “Brideshead Revisited” on Wed., we started again with “Schitt’s Creek,” still on the first season. I also watched the Indy 500 on Sunday.

Listening

Shazam’d songs this week

Connections & Community

Local Support: My husband volunteered at the local car museum for 7 hours this week, helping get it ready before it opens to the public next week. We had breakfast at a local bakery/café on Friday and bought treats there on Thursday. We ate lunch outside at a local restaurant on Wednesday. We bought gardening products and wood from a local (small chain) hardware store on Wed. We bought asparagus from the local farmstand on Friday and asparagus, lettuce, a cucumber, and a begonia hanging basket there on Tuesday. I bought penne and chick peas at the local-coop on Tues. I ordered flowers for my cousin on Monday for her birthday on Wed. using a local (to her) florist. We hired a local landscaping contractor for 18 hours this week and paid him on Friday.

very delicious coconut chocolate Danish from bakery

Relationships: Salon met on Friday with five of us for two hours. I sent my cousin flowers for her birthday this week. We spent an hour visiting with a friend’s son (he was staying at her house while she was away) on Friday. Chatted some with friends LV and KV (no relation to each other :-)) on Friday when I ran into them while out in the world. I guess most of my socialising this week was on Friday.

(Non)Endings

You’d think we’d have stopped having woodstove fires by almost-June, but we had one last week, as mentioned, and we started another one at noon on Sunday this week. It’s been a cold spring.