Sunday, March 30, 2025

Noticing Nature - Stinkbug and Wetlands in Winter

Well-built walkway through the wetlands
in our local county park.

The endeavor: noticing one thing in nature each day. And attempting to be grateful.


February 26th through March 6th


On Wednesday Feb 26th, nature presented itself in the form of a malfunctioning furnace.  As the morning wore on, I noticed that I was feeling colder and colder.  The thermostat was set on 69oF but the temp was 64oF.  After some vain attempts to ask the Common Household Husband if he had turned off the heat for some reason (no reply from the CHH), I called the furnace company.  Within an hour repairperson Dan showed up.  He claimed that the deteriorating body of a stink bug inside the furnace had prevented the igniter from igniting.    So stinkbug is our featured item in noticing nature for Wednesday.


Thank you, repairperson Dan.



On Thursday, on the way home from shopping at a small locally-owned grocer, I decided on a whim to stop off in the county park for a nature walk.  The county has built a raised wooden walkway through a wetlands area.  It was more wet than land on Thursday.  To get to the raised walkway, I had to splash through numerous puddles and swampy places.  I was grateful that whoever built that walkway did a good job.  I thought, it was sound government and non-corrupt workers and business who brought us that walkway.   Sound government keeps us all from sinking into the muck.  I was so glad for a chance to consider all the living creatures I could not see but who make the wetlands area alive and worthwhile.  As I turned to walk back to my car, a huge heron / egret flew past.  Magnificent!  HeronEgret is the nature feature for Thursday. (Nope, no photo of HeronEgret)

Puddle.  
See below for a few more photos 
of our little wetlands.


Friday.  Hmm.  I was very busy not buying anything.  Did I even go outside?


Sat, Sun - we had out of town visitors - Older daughter and her husband!  A quick but wonderful visit.  The Common Household Son made it home from his business trip in time to join us.  And we had a lengthy fun facetime with Younger Daughter.  I cooked Chicken on Sheet Pan 3 ways (I only did one way), Sheet-pan Veggie Shawarma, and oven-roasted potato wedges.  I had delicious berries on my waffle Sunday morning at the waffle place.  Food is our featured nature item for the weekend.


On Monday, after spending close to an hour outside rallying for Ukraine, my frozen toes were a reminder of nature.   It is extraordinary good fortune that we were able to quickly get back in the car and restore toes to life.  The prospects for Ukraine, however, are uncertain.  Likewise, our own country.



Tuesday.  It was quite warm today. I went out to get the mail after sunset, without having to put on outerwear as if I was going searching for Ernest Shackleton.  The sky was still a beautiful dark blue and I noticed the “evening star” e.g. planet.  At the apex of the sky was the faithful crescent moon, along with some stars twinkling through the bare tree branches.  


Wednesday was when I realized I had forgotten to take my meds for 3 straight days. I NOTICED the nature of heartburn, for sure.  But this is proof that this drug works.  This particular med is to me a miracle and I am thankful for it.  I am counting as nature the way such chemicals work in the human body.


Thursday March 6th.  It snowed a bit today and was blustery.  The furnace is still working fine.  Yay!I didn’t go out until evening, when it was time to go to a Dem committee meeting.  I was grateful that the meeting was packed.  I hope these people stick around for the hard work.


* * * * * * * * * *


I wrote this on March 6th, back when it was still actual winter, but the rapid advance of fascism has made me too busy to post it until now.


History of this spot.

Three benches sunken into the wet.
This seems like a pointless place to put benches.
Who wants to sit there?!

The rushing creek.

Flora encroaches on the walkway,
near the end of it.



Lots of standing water. 
I mean, it is wetlands.



Poster of tiny life forms.





Thursday, March 6, 2025

Ashes to Ashes, Spoons to Spoons

Smash the patriarchy

 

How my Ash Wednesday went.


On Wednesday afternoon a kind person explained Spoon Theory to me.  The spoon is a metaphor for the mental - physical - spiritual energy each of us has in a day to devote to our daily tasks.  Imagine each of us is allotted a certain number of spoons for the day.  Some days, it can take a person, say, 5 spoons to just get out of bed; other days it takes that person zero spoons.  For some people, calling their Senator uses hardly any spoons; for me it’s a high spoon cost.  It always makes me nervous.


And then the kind person showed me what it says on her wall: “It is okay to run out of spoons.”  Given the frenetic pace I have been on, for political activity, I needed to hear this.  And it was refreshing to have Kind Person listen to me.

 

That blessed conversation ended.  I began to feel some nasty heartburn, something I hadn’t felt in a long, long time.  I realized that I had forgotten to take my heartburn medicine for three straight days, because I was distracted by the decline and fall of Western civilization.  Heartburn uses up some spoons, for sure.


That evening we set out for dinner and Ash Wednesday worship – my Jewish husband and I.  I wore the button (pin) that I have decided to wear everywhere.  It says, “No Kings” (see photo above).


We sat at a round table at a gathering of three local churches, eating delicious homemade soup.  Small talk with strangers is not my strong suit, but it is something society needs to help us get along.  At first we discussed the various soups - a safe and pleasant topic.  Then one person at our table – from a different church than mine – told us about his real estate endeavors - houses he has refurbished and rents out.  Excellent.  He has contributed to the common good through his business.  


Landlord Guy then went on to complain about how the county executive raised the real estate tax by 36%.  “But no, she wouldn’t cut jobs or cut county spending.  Instead my renters have to pay 36% more.”  I said nothing.  I don’t know this man at all, so I felt it was pointless to start an argument about taxes.  Someone else at the table said, Did you hear that the USAID money has been restored?  Landlord Guy responded, “I bet Chelsea Clinton is real glad about that!  All that money from USAID goes straight to the Clintons!”  I could not listen any more.  I got up quickly and left the table without saying a word. 


I suddenly had no spoons left. I went to the sanctuary.


Shortly after I left the table, the worship service started.  As I was in line to receive the imposition of ashes, the woman behind me tapped my shoulder and whispered to me, “I like your pin.”  My “No Kings” pin.  I was grateful and thanked her.  This woman restored to me a spiritual spoon. 


No kings but Jesus.


Saturday, March 1, 2025

Noticed that Nature Brought Ice This Week

No book club in person.  :-(

This post is my version of the Finding Joy in Gratitude effort.

Sunday Feb 16th: Today nature caused book club to move from in person to zoom.  The day started with relative warmth (around 40F) and rain, then the temperature dropped.  Slush, then snow.  There is probably ice out there but I am not going out until tomorrow to check.  And it’s going to be blasted cold for the next week.  Soooo grateful for heat and light.  And while a discussion on zoom is suboptimal, I was very grateful for the zoom option.  But my first attempt at a charcuterie board was cut off at the knees.


Monday, so-called Presidents’ Day:  The driveway was a sheet of ice; ice is part of nature.  I did not fall down, which is a miracle.   The reason that the icy driveway was important was because we were expecting the delivery of our new clothes washer, the old having served us well before going caput.  A new appliance is not part of nature, but not having to go to a creek in 16F weather to wash the clothes makes one grateful for the chance to avoid that interaction with nature.  Appliance installed; backlog of laundry being washed.


There was a rally in town, but I did not go.


Tuesday: I was confronted again by ice.  Our front walkway up to the mailbox has some pretty nasty icy patches.  We have run out of sidewalk salt.  The good thing about this bitter cold weather is, as the weather app tells me:  “Risk of mosquito activity is low.”


Wednesday:  nature?  What is nature?


Thursday: I walked for 1.5 miles on the treadmill to try to reduce my anger and anxiety.  I am counting pumping blood and moving muscles as part of nature.  Because it is.


Friday:  I will have to shovel the front walk - there is about one inch of snow on there.  I forgot to buy sidewalk salt when I was at the grocery store. 


Door-knocking partner cropped out for privacy reasons.
Look, there is a Tardis behind us.
Maybe we could go to a different time-frame.


Saturday: The temperature was above freezing as we went door knocking to try to find a candidate for town council.  Nobody volunteered to run.

Smoky the Bear exhorts us to resist.
Yeah, we're trying.

Sunday:  Temps slightly above freezing during the Demonstration for Democracy in town.  But still cold enough that when I was holding the camera to livestream (for our grassroots groups), I needed my gloves on.  I had forgotten my hat, but I was grateful that it was just warm enough that my ears did not get cold.  (several photos of this event at the end of this post)


Monday: The snow is melting.  It’s way above freezing today.  The walk out to the mailbox (to mail an item related to my aunt’s estate) was for once not a frigid and unpleasant expedition.


Aaand then I lost track of writing it all down.  But I got through the last week of February.  And for that I am thankful.



Demonstration for Democracy on Feb 23, 2025











First Lines: Feb 2025 edition

Frogs reading and sipping tea.
Seen while canvassing in 2019.


Below are the first lines of the books I finished reading in February (and one DNF).  I made a point of looking for some lighter material vs last month.  For me, that means more Alexander McCall Smith.    

The internet admonished me to download my kindle-Amazon books to my computer by Feb 28th but I have not done so.  By today it is too late. Most of my kindle material is borrowed from the library. 


I was encouraged to learn that there are potentially viable alternatives to Amazon kindle.  But right now I am too lazy / anxious / distracted to make that change.

 

 

Book 1

Once, at the dawn of a very dark time, an American father and daughter found themselves suddenly transported from their snug home in Chicago to the heart of Hitler’s Berlin.

 

 

Book 2

When Pat Macgregor received an invitation from Bruce Anderson to meet for coffee at the Elephant House on George IV Bridge, her first reaction was to delete it.

 

 

Book 3

I’m dead.

You want to talk about my family and here I been dead to them for fifty years.

 

 

Book 4

01 for this ordinary day


Lord, here I am.


How strange it is,

that some days feel like hurricanes

and others like glassy seas

and others like nothing much at all.



 

Book 5

Scotland was gorgeous— even more so than I’d imagined. 

 

 

Book 6

Miss Constance Kopp, who once hid behind a tree near her home in Wyckoff, N.J., for five hours waiting to get a shot at a gang of Black Handers who had annoyed her, is now a Deputy Sheriff of Bergen County, N.J., and a terror to evildoers. —New York Press, December 20, 1915

 


Book 7

November 1994

Little River, NY

I’m standing at the end of my driveway in the dark, watching Mrs. Varnick’s trailer, waiting for her lights to go out, getting really pissed off.

 

 

Book 8

Many and varied are the interpretations dealing with the teachings and the life of Jesus of Nazareth.  But few of these interpretations deal with what the teachings and the life of Jesus have to say to those who stand, at a moment in human history, with their backs against the wall.

 

 

Book 9

“Mozart,” said Isabel Dalhousie.  And then she added, “Srinivasa Ramanujan.” 


 

Did not finish

So Gelon says to me, “Let’s go down and feed the Athenians.  The weather’s perfect for feeding Athenians.”

 

 

The titles and authors revealed:

 

 

Book 1

In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin

By Erik Larson

448 pages • first pub 2011

nonfiction history


Highly recommend, if you can stomach it right now.  There are so many parallels to the United States today, it’s disgusting.  I read it for Book Club #2, and barely finished it before the library snatched it back from my kindle.  This was my second reading, but the first reading was a while ago, back when I never imagined the events in the book would be relevant to the US today.


The foreword to the book is crushingly apt for today:

In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself in a dark wood where the straight way was lost.

—DANTE ALIGHIERI, The Divine Comedy: Canto I

(Carlyle-Wicksteed Translation, 1932)


Excerpt which reflects my feelings about US leaders today: 

The thing that weighed on [Ambassador Dodd]  most, however, was the irrationality of the world in which he now found himself. To some extent he was a prisoner of his own training. As a historian, he had come to view the world as the product of historical forces and the decisions of more or less rational people, and he expected the men around him to behave in a civil and coherent manner. But Hitler’s government was neither civil nor coherent, and the nation lurched from one inexplicable moment to another.

 

 

Book 2

A Time of Love and Tartan (44 Scotland Street Series #12)

By Alexander McCall Smith

256 pages • first pub 2017

fiction contemporary


I was desperate for a light read, and this series never disappoints.  This one was published in 2017; I saw what I thought was timely commentary:

 

 

Book 3

The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother

By James McBride

256 pages • first pub 1996

nonfiction memoir


For PT book club.  Just as good as the first time I read it.  Better, in fact, with what I have learned in the past 9 years.  James McBride as a writer is a gift to the world.  The book just reads so easily, and yet goes into great depth. 


Quote from a biographical video of James McBride

“When you do something small that is to the positive, it shoves the world forward to the good.  And that’s the thought that gets me out of bed in the morning, that’s the prayer that’s on my lips every night.”  – James McBride

 

Book 4

The Lives We Actually Have: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days

By Jessica Richie, Kate Bowler 

256 pages. First published 2023.

nonfiction literary poetry religion


Not a book meant to be read straight through, but I read most of it, skimming some.  There are chapters with a plan for Lent and for Advent, which I think could be very helpful. I might buy this book to have on hand, for the imperfect days that are upon us.


 

Book 5

An American in Scotland (A Scottish Isle Mystery Series #1)

By Lucy Connelly

304 pages • first pub 2023.

fiction mystery thriller lighthearted


Enjoyable.  I like the main character. The murder occurs almost right away.  There were so many possible romantic interests popping up that I was fearing it would be less a murder mystery and more a romance.  It didn’t, in this book.  But it’s a series, so it’s set up for the romance to develop.

 

 

Book 6

Lady Cop Makes Trouble (Kopp Sisters #2)

by Amy Stewart

310 pages • first pub 2016.

fiction crime historical mystery


I enjoyed this second book in the series. Some amusing moments.  It dragged a teeny bit in the middle.  The first line is either the headline from an actual news article, or based on such an article.  The author draws the story line and most of the characters from the news of the time.  

 

 

Book 7

The People We Keep

By Allison Larkin

368 pages • first pub 2021.

fiction literary

The main character is a teen named April who has made bad choices and has a difficult life.  I don’t want to give anything away, but the ending is just way too happy-go-lucky. I liked most of the characters, and thought it was a good fiction treatment of what it is like for a young person to live in poverty.  I read it for book club (for March).


 

Book 8

Jesus and the Disinherited

By Howard Thurman

106 pages • first pub 1949.

nonfiction religion


A short but meaty book.  Thurman seeks to answer the question: what does the teaching of Jesus have to offer to those “with their backs against the wall”?  How can oppressed people (the “disinherited”) keep fear, deception, and hatred at bay?  Is it possible to practice Jesus’ example to love one’s enemies?  Parts seemed to be exactly describing the deep loneliness of our current time, although this was written well before its rise.  If I get around to it, I’ll post a lengthy excerpt about that. 


 

Book 9

The Uncommon Appeal of Clouds (Isabel Dalhousie #9)

Alexander McCall Smith

288 pages • first pub 2012

fiction mystery


The main character, a philosopher, often sinks deep into thought while muddling around in other people’s lives, to whimsical effect. The mystery does not involve murder, but the theft of a painting.  This book is just what the doctor ordered - light but thoughtful literature written before the rise of the toddler-in-chief.   

 

 

Did not finish

Glorious Exploits

By Ferdia Lennon

289 pages • first pub 2024.

fiction historical literary


This was supposed to be uproariously funny.  But given the current times, the first two chapters did nothing for me but raise my anxiety.   What can I say?  I am a sensitive reader.  Even if it’s the Athenians’ fault, I didn’t find the portrayal of the conditions of holding them prisoner amusing in any way.  It just reminded me of detention camps for undocumented immigrants.  What could end up amusing is that the book seems to be written in the lingo of current-day Ireland.



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Dear reader, please tell – what are you reading?  Or link to your latest post about your recent reading.