Weekly recap of my ritual of existence in this liminal space called life. (See here for more info.)
- Weather
Weather was springy: highs in the 60°Fs and 70°Fs, breezy, rainy. We are now officially, technically, “abnormally dry” instead of in a drought. (Yellow is abnormally dry, tan is moderate drought, orange is severe drought)
High temperatures ranged this week from 78.8°F to 66.9°F, averaging a pleasant 72.5°F. Lows ranged from 49.3°F to 59.0°F, averaging 54.1°F. Nice sleeping weather, no need for the A/C.
We received about 1.8 inches of rain this week, mostly on Thursday and in the wee hours of Monday morning.
- Beginnings/Firsts
Saw our first monarch caterpillar, on a swamp milkweed plant, on Sunday. (I haven’t even seen a monarch butterfly yet!)
I bought my first quart of local strawberries this year from the farmstand on Wednesday.
- Wild Things (Flora, Fauna, Fungi) in addition to others elsewhere in this post
- Wandering
I walked in town every day this week except Monday, when we walked around the lake.
around town
art gallery
lake
Merlin-heard birds at the lake on 15 June:
- Curiosity & Discoveries
While planting some new native plants, I saw foliage I wasn’t sure about arising from amidst the densely spreading ‘Spirit’ sedum, so I took a photo and checked it on plantNet; it’s a Liatris spicata (a native dense blazing star) I planted there last year, apparently. I ripped out sedum from around it and will be keeping an eye on it.
In a similar vein, I discovered that one of the six supposedly perennial butterfly weeds I planted last year has returned!
And while my husband was doing some transplanting, he found several more Jack-in-the-pulpits hiding among the raspberries and invasives. We’re up to 22 of them now.
- Creating
Nothing new, but it always amazes me in spring how time stretches to allow me to get pretty much everything done that needs or wants to be done in this weather. (Sometimes dinner creativity suffers,)
- Repairing and Maintaining the human(s), the cat, and the cars
Human: I worked out three times (3 hours) this week, stretching, doing strength training, dancing. I also recently started to do some nervous system reset moves that loumystretchandgrowth on Instagram claims Chinese grandmothers do. Who knows? (I’m not paying for anything, I just enjoy these quick takes he offers for free — I like how I feel afterward, floppier.) I walked more than 11,000 steps every day, more than 14,000 steps on three days, with a high step day of 16,544 on Wednesday. I participated in Dharma Sunday for two hours with Lama Liz leading meditation and teaching on “Your Mind is a Celestial Star Map of Interconnection” (Forest Teachings Part VII). I meditated every day this week for a total of 4 hours and 10 mins. I had a good amount of social connection this week.
- Nesting
Cleaning/Maintenance: I did clothes laundry twice, on Wed. and Sunday, and washed the bathroom rugs on Saturday. I cleaned the downstairs toilets. I vacuumed the bedroom on Tuesday. I watered the houseplants on Friday.
Financial/Admin: I backed up the laptop on Monday.
Supplies: The Nuts.com order was delivered on Tuesday. I picked up my native plant orders from the local native plant nursery on Friday.
Food: Monday I made the penne-pine nut-asparagus dish, with Old Bay shrimp, and sautéed summer squash and Vidalia onion. We had the penne dish on Tuesday with peas and corn, + cukes. On Wed. we went out to dinner with a friend/neighbour (my husband and I both had the cod dish with mashed potatoes and green beans). We had our leftover cod dishes on Thursday night, with sautéed broccolini and pine nut rice pilaf. I forgot to write down what we ate on Friday evening and can’t recall. We grilled hot dogs (beef, soy) on Saturday night, which we had with corn and peas and leftover rice pilaf. Sunday I made a tuna casserole (egg noodles, scallions, garlic, artichoke hearts, peas, milk, etc.), + cucumber and local tomatoes.
- Garden
I spent 8 hours gardening this week, three of those hours on Friday when I planted most of my native plant orders from the local native plant nursery, which were finally ready to be picked up this week. The refunded me for the dwarf iris plugs they didn’t have, and I haven’t gotten the sweetbay magnolia tree in the ground yet — can’t decide where — but I was able to plant the five strawberry plugs, the five blue-stemmed goldenrod plugs, three quarts of Liatris spicata (dense blazing star), three gallons and two (free) quarts of clustered mountain mint (Pycnanthemum muticum), and two quarts of sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale). The rest of the gardening was watering, weeding, checking on plant health/growth, doing more of the Chelsea chop on a few plants, clearing overly “social” plants away from other plants that were being smothered or too shaded (either by cutting them back or removing/transplanting some of them), and the neverending chore of pulling invasives.
My husband worked in the garden for a couple of hours on Wednesday transplanting some woodland sunflower I wanted thinned (still lots more thinning to do there!) and pulling invasives.
in the garden this week
- Sleeping & Dreaming
I slept an average of 7 hours 32 mins per night this week, with a (Samsung Fit 3) sleep score of 90.7. REM accounted for 13 hours 15 mins and deep sleep for 7 hours 23 mins.
- Reading / Words & Ideas / Listening / Watching
Reading
BOOKS: My neighbour lent me the novel Mad Honey (2022) by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan, which I really enjoyed. It’s a very well-written story of teenagers in love, one of whom (Lily) is murdered and the other (Asher) charged with her murder. This is a courtroom drama, told in the alternating present and past from a few perspectives, and it’s also a lovely treatise on beekeeping, which Asher’s mother does, motherhood (Asher’s mother is the central voice in the book and Lily’s mother is featured), absent fathers, and an exploration of keeping secrets relating to domestic violence, gender identity, family relationships, and more.
OTHER:
This is a thought-provoking article: Could There Be a Third Party for Moderates? It turns out, Americans agree on an awful lot by Gabe Fleisher at Wake Up To Politics, 17 June 2026.
And this is a beautiful prose poem I read, then re-read, then read again: On Cottage Time by Liz Colville at her newsletter Slow Hope, 20 June 2026. I love the painting, too.
✨✨✨
Watching
Still mostly “Schitt$ Creek” (season 4). I keep forgetting to watch PGA golf.
- Connections & Community
Local Support: My husband volunteered for the local car museum for 11 hours this week (including representing them at a local assisted living center car event, where he chatted with some friends of ours, SS, TS, and JC). We had breakfast at a local bakery/café on Wednesday and lunch there on Sunday; I also bought some snacks there on Thursday. I bought strawberries at the local farmstand on Wed. and crackers, cukes, and their tomatoes there on Saturday. On Wed. I also bought penne and veg. broth at the local co-op and a card and two small gifts from a local (independent) pharmacy. (We ate dinner at a local restaurant on Wed. with a friend but we didn’t choose it nor did we pay.) We had snacks outside at a localish café on Friday. We wandered around a local strawberry festival on Sat. and bought strawberry shortcake, plus cookies from a local commercial vendor. I ordered flowers on Sat. from a local florist for delivery for a friend’s birthday next week. We admired art at a local gallery on Sunday.
Relationships: I hosted the permaculture group on Zoom for 40 mins on Thursday, with six of us talking about the book we’re reading and other things. That afternoon I spent a couple of hours at a friend’s (RL), with another friend of ours (GV), catching up and eating snacks. As mentioned, we had dinner out with a friend (LD) on Wed. evening. Chatted with neighbours (SL&JL) on Tuesday for 20 mins, and with another neighbour (GR) that day for 5 mins. A neighbour I’d never met (JM) stopped me in the grocery store on Sunday to introduce herself, because she sees me walking around town a lot. 😊 I skipped Salon this week to pick up my plant order and get it in the ground.
- Endings
The ending, for the moment, of our drought!
- All This Useless Beauty
the wings on this hummingbird clearwing moth
Are peonies not angelic in every way?
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