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 rain! Some rain was recorded on each of five days, though minimal amounts on two of those days. Most of it fell on Friday and Monday. Overall, about 4.5 inches of rain graced our soils this week. Yay!

Temperatures were seasonal (no A/C needed), with highs ranging from 82.9°F to 69.4°F, averaging 75.9°F, and lows ranging very narrowly from 52.7°F to 56.8°F, averaging 55.6°F (on three days the low temp was exactly 56.1°F). We have some very warm days (& nights) and not much rain forecast for the coming week.

Here’s a little video of the rain on Friday (turn sound up)

• Beginnings/Firsts

Several first sightings this week:

• first monarch caterpillar (and a second individual as well), though I haven’t seen any monarch butterflies yet. The first was on a swamp milkweed, the second on a common milkweed.
• first (three) black swallowtail caterpillars on fennel, two on the same plant
• the first of the driveway daylilies bloomed on Friday

Also made some first harvests of veggies but will save that for the Endings/Harvest section.

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

• Wandering 

We walked at The Fells on Monday and at the lake on Saturday. Otherwise it was all in-town walks. We also wandered to a nearby town for breakfast at alocal bakery/farm stand on Saturday.

On Wednesday, about a half-hour after the end of a planned electrical outage in town that began at 9 a.m. and ended at 11:15, I was completing my 2.25-hr walk when I witnessed three things in the space of three or four minutes, all of which were a little harrowing and all entirely out of my control: first, a crowd of EMS folks and others standing closely around an older man hunched over on the front porch of the senior center; second, a minute or two later I watched helplessly as a car came flying up to another car (a neighbour’s), unaware that she was waiting to turn left into her driveway, slamming on their brakes and very narrowly avoiding a forceful collision — all I could do was stand there, about 25 yards away, and ineffectually yell “No!”; and moments later, I turned our corner and saw another neighbour holding her small terrier dog, who seemed limp, being supported by her (adult) son as they haltingly walked to his car, a unit of three; I was able to ask her son about the dog after my neighbour and her dog got into the car, and he told me they were heading to the vet. That one made me cry but all were jarring in some way.

The Fells

Merlin heard birds at The Fells —

lake

Merlin heard birds at the lake —

in town

• Curiosity & Discoveries

I finally remembered to pull out the camera disk from the non-wireless Bushnell motion camera last week and discovered on it photos of another bear sighting on 5 June and the only porcupine sighting so far this year, on 6 June (the last porcupine sighting was Oct. 2025).

• Creating

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

Human: I worked out three times (3 hours) this week and continued with my “Chinese grandma” stretches once or twice a day. I also continued with my daily meditation, Sunday marking 55 days since I made it a goal to meditate every day in May (I missed a few days in the first couple of weeks). This week I meditated for 4 hours and 35 minutes, which included a 55-min meditation led by Zen practitioner John Bailes for Dharma Sunday via Zoom, who also taught on “Tongxuan’s 100 Chan Questions: Case 16, Nonduality.” I walked more than 10,000 steps every day, more than 12,000 steps on five days, and more than 15,000 steps twice, with a high of 19.468 steps on Tuesday.

Cars: The BMW got its valve cover replaced at a local auto shop on Wednesday and we got an estimate to replace its non-functioning A/C.

• Nesting

Cleaning/Maintenance: I vacuumed the family room and kitchen on Tuesday. I did a load of clothes laundry on Friday, watered the houseplants on Saturday, and cleaned toilets on Sat.

Financial/Admin: I requested a transfer from an investment account to a checking account this week in light of some unusual bills (landscaping, tree removal, car repair, etc.). I went to Town Hall on Thursday to get an updated sticker for our town beach guest pass.

Supplies: The Amazon S&S was delivered on Monday, with grocery and cat items + health/beauty items. We did without the supply of electricity for 2.25 hours on Wed. during a planned outage (for 1/3 of our town) by our utility company (to perform maintenance); fortunately, it was in the low 70°Fs then, so we didn’t need to use our portable generator for the fridge or fans, but we could hear our neighbours’ automatic generators running all the while, and when I took a walk, the sound of generators that banks, stores, and non-profits were running reverberated (although many others chose to close for the morning or for the day).

Food: We had the leftover tuna casserole + raw cukes & local grape tomatoes on Monday for dinner. We picked up pizza (spinach, black olive, artichoke hearts) and salad (to which I added many things) from the local pizza place on Tuesday and we had that on Wed. as well. We ate outside at a local restaurant on Thursday evening (blackened cod tacos for me, harissa honey chicken for my husband, and we split an affogato for dessert).

My husband had his restaurant leftovers for dinner on Friday, while I made a tortellini salad (with Old Bay shrimp, black olives, bell peppers, artichoke hearts, peas, corn, parsley, etc.) which I had that night and we both enjoyed it on Sat., with raw cukes, local grape tomatoes, and local carrot with humus. We grilled hot dogs (soy, beef) on Sunday, which we accompanied with the last of the tortellini salad and local cukes & local radishes with humus.

• Garden

Thanks to rainfall, I didn’t have to do too much watering of veggies, annuals, and new plants/transplants. I spent about 5 hours in the garden this week, mostly weeding, harvesting (arugula & garlic scapes), and yes, also watering on a few days. My husband mowed the lawn on Saturday and pulled invasives (bittersweet, Virginia creeper, glossy buckthorn, probably some grapevine). He also took dried invasives to the brush dump that day, in a couple of loads.

As mentioned, the driveway daylilies (planted by someone before us) have begun to bloom. I like to count them each year. We’re up to three so far.

We spoke with another tree removal company on Thursday (after they met with our neighbours about their trees) and got another estimate for removing the blue spruce that’s close to the utility wires (since the first one who said they’d do it in June has had a broken bucket loader for more than a month …)

garden pics this week

• Sleeping & Dreaming

I had a lot of vivid dreams this week, especially from Thursday night to Sunday morning, and I’m not surprised my REM time this week was higher than usual, at 15 hours 12 mins. Overall, I slept about 7.5 hours per night, with a (Samsung Fit 3) sleep score of 90.1. I had about 8 hours of deep sleep.

• Reading / Words & Ideas / Listening / Watching  

Reading

BOOKS

I finished two books this week: Body Weather: Notes on Chronic Illness in the Anthropocene (2026) by Lorraine Boissoneault and The Layton Court Mystery (Roger Sheringham Cases, #1; 1925) by Anthony Berkeley.

Body Weather is a non-fiction book that’s centered on grief: it’s an almost seamless intertwining of personal memoir, detailing Boissoneault’s chronic illnesses, her symptoms, flare-ups, procedures, and surgeries, and her often disappointing, demeaning, and exceedingly painful medical interactions; and of natural history and science study of Earth’s weather and the heightened flare-ups, unpredictability, and damage that climate change brings. From the book’s flap: she “explores the interconnected relationships between the human body and Earth’s meteorology — two chaotic systems that inform every cell of our being.” Her detailing of the Devil’s Hole pupfish history and living conditions will stick with me! I flew through it.

The Layton Court Mystery is a stylised (to modern eyes) crime novel set in Britain, featuring a loquacious, over-confident, and some what tedious amateur detective, who in this case investigates the apparent suicide by revolver in the library of Victor Stanworth, his country house host, with his friend Alec as his somewhat reluctant sidekick. Clues are found and people are questioned (in a 24-hour period, all while the real police detectives are conveniently away from the house) and most readers will have a strong suspicion as to the murderer hours before Roger does. I picked this book up from a laundry room cum library at a seaside motel in April. It would be a light and easy book for a summer vacation.

OTHER

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Listening

Some Shazam’d songs this week

Watching

Still “Schitt$ Creek” and some (International) House Hunters episodes. From a Christmas episode!:

• Connections &  Community

Local Support: We ordered pizza and salad from the local (small chain) pizza place on Tuesday. We took the car to a local auto shop for its repair on Wed. I picked up some items at a local bakery/café on Thursday and some small gifts and a card at a local gift shop. My husband and I had breakfast (outside on their porch) and bought some peas at a farmstand/café on Saturday morning. We attended a garden party at the library garden on Sunday, with the speaker the owner of the local farmstand. My husband volunteered at the local car museum for 7.5 hours this week. We spoke with someone semi-local about tree work on Thursday.

Relationships: Salon met on Friday with 7 of us (only one missing) for 2.25 hours. I went to a friend’s (RL) on Thursday to have lunch with her on her birthday. Sent a sympathy card to a friend (NR) whose husband died last week. On Tuesday I brought some excess bandages to a friend (GV) who had said she could use that size. Chatted with a friend (LL) for 5 mins on the walk home. Texted with a neighbour (BF) about tree work, texted with another neighbour (SL) about their dog (O).

• Endings/Harvest 

RIP, Scott R.

Also RIP to this baby song sparrow, who I think was born in our dwarf Alberta spruce not long before its demise.

On to happier harvesting news: I cut most of the garlic scapes on Wed. (and gave them to a friend, LM, on Friday). I cut our first batch of arugula on Wed. too. Some shelling peas will be ready for their first harvest tomorrow … the two rows I planted on 8 April; the other four rows were planted on 23 April and the plants are as big but they didn’t flower as soon and are behind in fruiting, too. We’ve got flowers on some tomatoes and on the cucumbers.

• All This Useless Beauty

the light on the fur

these colours and textures

the evening shade garden and path