Mad Cat Garden | June 2020

Our garden changed so much from the beginning of June to the end but it still seems, judging from other years, that many plants are a little behind in their development. We were able to eat lots of lettuces, peas, radishes, and kale at the beginning of the month, but by then end only some lettuces and kale and blueberries are ready to eat. There are many tomatoes and peppers growing but barely any were ripe by the end of June. We have been catching rain water to water plants with but for the long days of summer coming up the next few months, we might have to switch over to the hose.

The two new beds we put in a few months ago never really took off. The above picture is from the beginning of June, but little has changed. The tomatoes are bigger in the front bed and the zucchini in the back bed has blossoms now. The arugula in that bed went from shirmpy to bolting in a matter of a few hot days.

From the beginning of June to the end, our tomatoes and peppers have filled out and are producing fruit, but it’s not ripe, yet. Our spinach (below) had gone completely to seed and we are hoping to let those seeds develop and replant then in the fall. Same goes for our pea plants.

We harvested a few little cauliflowers from the bed shown above but the heat got to them as well. We will try these again for our fall crop. The radishes went to seed quickly in June and we are letting the seeds dry for replanting in the fall. This year will be a lot about seed saving and storage and experimentation.

Radish seed pod.

In the front yard, we planted soy beans which have grown and started flowering by the end of June. We planted potatoes next to them, which never grew (but I think they were too far gone by the time we planted them). Tomatoes and herbs are doing well in these beds.

Overall, all our tomato plants are smaller then they were last year, but it looks like sometime in July we will harvest a lot of those. Almost all our pepper plants, most of which were from seeds from last year, are small but doing well. In June we bought a few more herbs to fill out our herb bed. And as always, our pride of garden is our orange thyme plant, which has over wintered and grown steadily for three years now. I secretly hope it just takes over the whole front bed one day.

What did your garden look like in June? What changes from last year’s garden have you noticed?

Mad Cat Capsule | My Three Face Masks

I would never have believed, back in the beginning of the year, that face masks would be part of my capsule wardrobe in the 2020.

When we first knew that we would have to wear face masks while in public, my husband looked up a bunch of tutorials and made a variety of different masks. He is the machine sewer in the family. Most of the masks he made we ended up giving away to friends and family, some of them we still use as back ups. He was never quite satisfied with the pattern. By a few months in, we had sort of come up with our mask routine and he stopped making them, so never perfected his pattern. Personally, I went the easy route, a bandana.

I now have three bandanas that I wear and wash in rotation. These were all items that I already had. One is actually a vintage pocket square. I like the bandana bc it’s two layers of cotton, I can tuck the tail into my shirt collar, it’s easy to hand wash and dries quickly if needed, and honestly, it feels kinda cool, like I’m an outlaw.

Without meaning to, I picked three masks that fit perfectly into my spring capsule wardrobe. Somehow without trying, when I pick a mask each day, I know it will work well with whatever outfit I’m wearing from my capsule. That’s one of the joys of a capsule and one of it’s goals: to never have to think much about what you pull from your closet bc it all works together.

In a time when adding one more thing to the list you have to remember to carry out of the house each day (phone, keys, wallet… mask!), taking away the decision fatigue of which mask to wear is great.

How have you incorporated masks into your daily wardrobe?

Checking in with My 2020 Goals

Last year, I took some time to assess and reassess my overall yearly goals around mid year. 2020 is a perfect year to do this again, as so much has changed from January to now. But when I looked at the goals I made in the beginning of the year, I realized that I had actually accomplished quite a few of them!

I struggled with setting my 2020 goals back in January, but looking back on them, they were kinda spot on. Here are some notes on each and how I’m doing on them:

Creation Over Consumption - I’m not sure if I’ve created too much so far this year, but I have had more time to create and relax and let my brain work towards a creative direction.

Be More Self Sustainable
Live slow -Lockdown was great to reassert this goal!
Forage more - Another happy circumstances of lockdown was no shopping, foraging was the only option.
Grow more food -Our garden is huge!
Build a greenhouse - Almost done!
Cook more - I have been cooking more and we have been eating better than ever!
Beach more - In the beginning of lockdown, it was easy to walk to the beach just about everyday. Now that the Summer tourists are here, and not following social distancing rules, we have pretty much stopped going to the beach. While that is sad, I’m excited for Sept, when we can go often again.
Cat health - Quarantine was an amazing time to get to spend with our cats. Being home all the time really allowed us quality time and enabled us to focus on cat health.
Work less - Wow! Now I need to figure out a way to do that all the time.
Spend less - Yes!

House Projects -We haven’t made much headway on any house projects so far this year. Perhaps that’s something to focus on for the rest of 2020?
Kitchen
Basement
Woodstove - I still really want this as a goal. We need to get a new roof, so it makes sense to get a wood stove installed before then.
Piano
Clean and reduce

Travel and Explore - Well, this is where covid 19 got in the way of our plans instead of helped them. We have not been able to travel and explore too much this year. There are a lot of changes that we have adopted during this time that we want to keep, but being able to travel is something we want to take up again. Travel in the next few years might look quite different but we will see as we go.
Explore where to have a vacation house
Johnson family trip
Bermuda
NOLA

Read 1 Book per Month -I totally nailed this goal this year!
Shroud for a Nightingale - This book was read.
Salt -On my list
Magical Herbalism - Yep, and I’ve read 18 other books this year so far.

Exercise
Walk - Such a good year for this so far!
Swim - This is something that I would still like to explore, but the virus has put a damper on seeking it out.
Stretch - This might be the only goal on the list that I wish I had done better on.
Health and supplements

Over all, I was shocked looking back at how many of my goals I’ve accomplished this year. I hadn’t looked back on it for months and it was nice to see that I had incorporated so many of them into my daily life. Looking back on my goals let’s me reassess what my goals were and where I am with them and add on any goals that I have formed from the first half of the year. Now I will ruminate on what goals I want to set for the rest of the year.

Did you set goals in the beginning of 2020? Have you fulfilled those goals and did they go the way you expected? If you had to create new/more goals for the end of the year, how much would they change?

Shroud for a Nightingale

One of my goals in 2020 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.

Another novel by PD James, A Shroud for a Nightingale is one of Detective Dalgleish’s earlier books.

Having read several of the Adam Dalgliesh mysteries now, with no intention of stopping, I sort of wish I had read them in order. This is the 4th in the series.

When one student at the foreboding Nightingale House School for Nurses is murdered during a student practice role-play, and another is found dead of apparent suicide, only Detective Dalgliesh and his team can untangle the mysteries and complexities of this private community with it’s own rules and moral codes.

Reading these novels out of order sometimes means that you are reading books set in very similar places, or with similar plots right in a row. Having read quite a few, I think that if I had read them in the order intended I would not see such glaring re-occurences. That being said, I actively enjoy that James’ revisits themes. She seems obsessed with the idea of murders in small isolated communities. She obviously finds what someone one would do to protect that community compelling, and her readers do too. I found Shroud for a Nightingale particularly jarring as the deaths were of bright young people full of potential. Another interesting aspect of this book is that the community in question is almost entirely women. James’ victims come in all shapes and sizes and non are totally morally good or evil and the same can be said of her killers. Most of the time. To find out who the murderer is in Shroud For A Nightingale is and the motive for their crimes, you’ll have to read it for yourself! I would recommend this book for those who are interested in medical mysteries, fans strong leading detectives, those who have read any other of James’ work (this one had a few interesting differences than the other’s I have read) and of course, mystery fans everywhere!

Do you like mysteries set in hospitals or medical fields?

6 More Months of Zero Waste: June - Say NO, Say Yes

6 More Months of Zero Waste is the series where we tackle problems in our everyday lives to become more sustainable, more practical, use less plastic and create less waste.

What a weird time to be alive, huh? And what a hard time to be on a zero waste journey.

Over the last few months, a lot of our zero waste practices have been challenged. Shops and cafe have stopped accepting reusables. Restarants have moved to only take out, with all the plastic packaging that entails. Supermarkets have done away with bilk bins. Disposable masks and gloves literally litter the streets. It all adds up to be very disheartening and demoralizing for those trying hard to fight plastic waste and waste in general.

BUT there is still hope!! Some wonderful side effects have come from the pandemic; carbon emissions are down so much that scientists are actually able to study them in new ways, sound pollution is so lessoned that ornithologists can study bird calls as never before, the canals in Venice Italy are clearer than they have been in a century, light pollution is down, animals are retuning to cities and towns that should be their habitat not ours, and many people in many fields have taken this time to come up with new innovations for a more sustainable future.

As nature tries to rebalance, so must we. Here are some ways to balance a negative with a positive.

Say NO to using plastic bags at the grocery. My grocery will allow reusable bags, as long as I bag them myself. I know people who have put all items back in the cart, no bags, until they reach their can and can bag the items there. Say YES to continuing to use reusable bags.

Say NO to take out. Although we want to support local businesses during this time, we must sacrifice it to some extent when they use all plastic and disposable to go items. Say YES to finding your local spots that use paper or cardboard (pizza is always a good option!). And say YES to cooking at home more!

Say NO to disposable masks. Say YES to buying from an artizen making reusable masks or say YES to making your own!

Say NO to big box stores and groceries for food, plants, or what ever else you need, whenever possible and say YES to local farm markets or stands. Many of these types of locals shops have expanded their inventory at this time.

Say NO to driving, going to the gym, or seeking entertainment in malls or shopping centers. Say YES to long walks, staying local and staying in or around your own home and fining fun activities to do (victory garden anyone?) even AFTER lockdown. For several months we were forced not to do these things, now that things are reopening, you can choose not to do them.

Say NO to shopping for items online and YES to making due with what you have. Or borrow items from friends. Or urban forage.

Say NO to fast fashion and YES to ethical alternatives like online thrift shops. Better yet, say YES to shopping your own closet, decluttering as you go!

Say NO to spending money for the sake of buying and YES to thinking about saving in new ways. For some, the stay at home order and forced furlough or unemployment as well as having to change spending habits have have given people new insights in where and how they spend (and waste) money.

Say NO to thinking only how this time effects us, and YES to how it effects everyone on a global level. A small way to do this is to say YES to wearing your mask in public and continuing to self isolate even after the lockdown is lifted. Another is to donate, volunteer, or come up with other ways to help those more greatly effected then yourself.

Say NO to going right back to NORMAL and say YES to committing to coming up with a life that is more sustainable, more mindful and more fulfilling for YOU.

For our 6 More Months of Zero Waste this months, let’s remember to take what we have learned to balance and carry it with us into the future. Balancing a no with a yes in a sustainable lifestyle is a helpful practice that we can use and share now and many years from now.

What are some other things, activities or ideas that you have balanced during this time?

If you are new to this series, here’s what ew are working on for this 6 moth block. Follow along or pick and choose challenges to try.:
June 2020- Say NO, Say Yes
PLASTIC FREE JULY
August 2020 - carry no disposables
September 2020 - back to school/educate
October 2020 - beach clean
November 2020 - Hidden plastic
December 2020 - Repair before you replace

We started our tackling new zero waste challenges six months at a time in 2019:
January 2019 - Trash Audit
We separated and looked our trash to see what we are throwing away and what we can reduce.
February 2019- Declutter Everything
We went thru what we have to declutter and reduce.
March 2019- Switch to Paper
This month we moved to paper to get one step closer to reusables.
April 2019- Compost
Composting is an easy way to reduce food waste and prevent it from reaching the landfill.
May 2019- Meatless Monday
One of the best ways to improve the environment is to stop eating factory farmed meat and industrial fish. Small steps lead to big change so this month we gave up meat (or dairy or fish) for at least one day.
June 2019- No Bottled Water
We gave up bottled water as an avenue to give up more disposable plastic in Plastic Free July.
July 2019 - Plastic Free July!
Go plastic free this month!

In late 2019, we continued our journey to becoming more zero waste:
November 2019 - Zero Waste Kit
We created a zero waste kit to help us be more zero waste in our day to day life.
December 2019- No Gifts
We took Dec to give no gifts and get no gifts.
January 2020 - Clothing and Fast Fashion
This month we explored what fast fashion is, and how we can stop buying it forever.
February 2020- Use Mass Transit
The shortest month seemed like a good time to explore alternatives to driving our cars.
March 2020 - Bathroom Make-over
You’ve swapped out a few items to more sustainable choices around the house. It’s time to tackle a full room.
April 2020- Grow Your Own Food
April marks the start of spring in the continental USA, and when we can start growing food easily. But there are many ways and time to grow your some of own food.

On My Mind On Friday Morning

Another photo essay about windows.
I love the idea of having items that might be considered obsolete long into the present day! What old or “outdated” device are you still holing on to?
Here’s another list from NJ News on spots to visit around the state. And if you are planning on braving the beach, here’s a list of how much it will cost you.
Yesterday I wrote about thinking about what you want to keep from your time on quarantine, here is an interesting article about what some people will continue to hold dear.
I don’t love Treehugger’s new website, but they still have great articles. Here’s one about gearing up for Plastic Free July! It shares a lot of the same tips as I would.

Think About What You Want to Keep

As my job and many aspects of life return to normal, I’ve been thinking a lot about what normal is and if I like it. And mainly the answer is no.

Obviously we were in lockdown bc there is a global pandemic and we need to keep ourselves and our fellow human safe. It’s a serious thing that comes with the potential for sickness and death. It is not to be taken lightly. While in quarentine we were given an opportunity to really reflect on this and think about where we fit into the puzzle of society and community. And how we can improve that puzzle for every one to live a better more healthy life.

Lock down also gave me time to think about my overall priorities in life, what is important and what is less so.

I’ve always known that my priorities don’t usually meet up with most peoples. I tend shun consumerism, favor solitude, have not bought into an image or conventional standards of life, and “move to the beat of my own drum” more than most, I would say. The things that are important to me are not what I have or what I can buy. I hold my privacy, the comfortablility in my home (including saving items that might be considered trash to most), my family, my cats, making a safe space for them, time to think and create, grow and learn, and my commitment to reducing my waste and plastic intake, and creating, thru my small actions, a tiny teeny corner of the world that’s a little better, as some of the most important things in life.

While I was in lockdown there were things that I noticed I had more time for or felt good about. Here are some of my observations:

More time to create
During lock down I was starting to feel creative again. I was able to devote time to this blog, draw, read, write, and let my mind start to have space to create. What could I have done with more time for these practices?

More time with family and friends
Although, I missed out on seeing a lot of people bc it was imperitive to stay away from most people, I was able to connect to many people in some way as well. I had long conversations, played game nights at online gatherings, and texted many people I had not seen in a long time to check in and stay connected.

Buying way less
We pride ourselves on not buying much in general, but the opportunity to buy even less felt great.

Devoting less time to grocery shopping
I’ve said it many times before, but we would go to the grocery store every few days, some times many days in a row before lockdown. Something we want to take away from this experience is to only shop every few weeks, and by doing that, reduce our food waste.

Devoting more time to cooking and experimenting with recipes
Besides buying less in the long run, and using up what we bought, we were also able to spend time testing new recipes, trying new foods and relaxing when we cooked and ate.

Driving way less
One big downside to moving out of the city is all the driving. Keeping indoors, not eating out, and not traveling, it was nice to get a big break from the car.

More time to rest and think
During full quarentine I had a chance to do somehting that I haven’t done in over 20 years. I could wake up at my own pace and in my own time. No alarms, no immediate thoughts of the stressful day ahead or behind, no worrying about my job before my eyes even opened.

Feeling productive for myself
When I’m working it’s hard for me to feel good or productive about anyhting at home. For a long time I thought that meant I couldn’t self discipline or be productive without a job. But now I know, it’s the regular job that hinders me from this, not the other way around.

These are only some observations on my own mind and state of being, I could write a whole other article about the great impact on the world that lockdown had (and one on the negatives, I’m sure).

But basically, having time and space, even though we were staying home, had a great effect on me. I’m not sure I can go on living the way society forces us to under normal circumstances now that I know what life could be like. But as we must have a balance, I’m thinking hard about what I want to keep from what I’ve learned and how to do that.

What did you learn about yourself and your life in lockdown? What do you want to keep from that time?

Victory Gardens

Last month I posted about how many new gardens had cropped up around town. I’m not sure how many of these victory gardens were created from the desire to be more self sufficient, the fear of food shortage, from having more time to experiment, or from boredom of being at home most of the time. No matter the reason, it’s been a great pleasure to walk around our neighborhood and spot new gardens or check on the progress or others.

In the beginning of June, this garden, which has parts spread out all over a large yard was fairly small as seen here. I’ll have to try and capture a after pic for next month as this garden is now huge!

This property has a lot of raised beds inside a deer proof perimeter.

All lettuce.

This community style configuration of raised beds was spotted in a large apartment complex.

I’ve been watching this garden for a few years, as it’s just down the street from me. They got a late start this year, but now it’s really rolling.

Did you create a victory garden this year? It’s not too late if you are still considering it. Hopefully all the viriety of beds shown here can inspire you! Have you spotted any gardens on your walks?

Zero Waste Product Review: Safety Razor

I bought a safety razor a few years ago. I don’t shave much.

It took me a while to switch over to a safty razor, even though they make way more sense than disposable razors. I reused all my disposable razors until they could not be reused any more, disposed of them, bought a safty razor, then found more disposables hidden away in a closet or something.

That’s one of the problems with all sorts of disposables that people don’t really talk about. Thier insidious and ubicutious nature. Not only do we not think anything of throwing them out, we think nothing of buying more. How much money have people wasted on buying more razors, when they already had some, more hand cream bc the new one smells nice, and more q tips or hair ties bc do we have enough? I can’t remember, and more shampoo bc why not? Many argue that a sustainable lifestyle is more expensive, but if one takes a longer view we see that that is clearly not the case.

When I did finally start using this razor, back May of 2019, I was really nervous. For some reason, using a razor with a removable blade seemed way more dangerous then a razor where the whole thing is disposable. The first few times I used it, it felt really weird. I went really slow. I gave myself razor burn from going over the same spot slowly several times. I feared shaving my underarms.

A little over a year later, I wonder why anyone would ever use a disposable razor? It’s so easy to use a safty razor! I do all the things I did with a disposable (shave all the spots, dry shave, etc…), but it’ doesn’t create waste! After the adjustment period, I would say a safety razor is just as easy to use as any other I have tried. I haven’t had to change the blade yet, and I expect, as long as I keep it dry, and with my infrequency of shaving, I won’t have to for a while. I use the QShave razor, which was only about $14 at the time. Considering with a little care, this and it’s extra razor blades will last me many years, it’s a steal. I’m sure I will have to buy additional blades at some point, but no time soon. I’m not sure QShave is the best, so I would check out a few and see which you like. I am confident that anyone can make this swap tho.

In conclusion safety razors are great! Very easy to use, affordable, and sustainable. If you don’t have one, make sure to get one!

Wildlife

One of my goals in 2020 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.

I have no idea where I got this book or why I picked up Wildlife by Richard Ford but it was once housed as a used book at The Strand. I really enjoyed the feeling of this book and that the cover is slightly scratchy.

In a town in Montana, where wildfires are raging just near by, a man loses his job. At the same time his son loses his perfect image of his parents.

I liked this book. It wasn’t groundbreaking or brilliant. But I enjoyed it for it’s straight forward, unfettered, coming of age story. I liked the background setting of a nervous town in Montanan and the atmosphere it provided. The characters were not all entirely fleshed out, but some aspects were surprising poignant. Joe, the 16 year narrator, is quiet and solemn. His mother is distantly mean. A slice of life story revolving around one small tragedy, this book is also quiet. It reminded my of the movie The Ice Storm, and the idea that everyone has a whole world of their own that they rarely show others. I would recommend this book for those who like coming of age stories, stories about boys growing up in America, or period slice of life novels.

What is your favorite coming of age story?

Dayworld

One of my goals in 2020 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.

I have long been a fan of Philip Jose Farmer’s Riverworld Series and when I found a copy of Dayworld I was excited to read it! I love the cover!

Now you only get to live one day a week. Now you get put in stasis, “stoned”, for 6 days a week. Now you belong to an underground organization that breaks stoning. Now you live for seven days a week. Now you are a different person each day. Now you are seven people. Now you are on the run.

The other day a friend said to me, “you only read old books”. That is pretty much true. There’s something comforting about old novels, especially old sci fi stories. Yes, they are usually racist, sexist, bizarre, and outdated but they also have such a strange sense of hope for the future and nostalgia for a future that never came to pass. This one was especially poignot, being about people who were forced to live only one day a week due to restrictions put on them from the government and world. In some way, it stragely mirrored the lifestyle change of having to stay home under lockdown. The most compelling idea of Dayworld is not the destruction of the planet at the hands of humans (inevitable), not the control of life by the government (already true), not the uprisings that ensue from this control (no brainer), and not the fact that those uprisings are also lead by the corrupt (clearly) but the idea of how you survive and flourish thru those trials. The pursistence of life is not a new theme, of course. But this take on it, and all the lives that persistence touches, is a very interesting part of this book. I would recommend this book to all those who like vintage sci fi, rebellion stories, and stories about multiple personalities or disguises.

Do you like vintage sci fi? Who’s your favorite author?

My Number One Tip for Quitting Fast Fashion

This is an easy tip:

DON’T BUY FAST FASHION.

Fast fashion is bad on many levels. The environmental and human impact is enormous. There are tons of resources for you to see all of it. You might want to start with my simple definitions surrounding Fast Fashion, and other fashion terms.

But avoiding fast fashion is easier said than done. As with almost everything in the sustainability movement, it starts with a mind-set shift. We must move away from the idea that we need to constantly be buying new clothes, that we need to keep up with changing trends, and the idea that having a lot of cheaply made and purchased clothing is better than having a few pieces that we love and that cost more (and therefore, hopefully, were made humanely with the environment in mind). We must also change how we think about clothing at a basic level. We are consumers and our first thought is about ourselves. We must move away from our first thoughts of “that would look good on me”, “that’s so cute!”, “that’s on trend”, “I need this item”. and think about where our clothing comes from. Who made this item? What conditions were they exposed to? What impact did it have on them? On water supplies, on animals, on the earth? Once these become questions you ask yourself before buying you are less likely to buy unnecessarily. The impact fast fashion has on the world becomes an impact on you as well. But this may take time and certainly takes a lot of effort.

So while you are figuring out how to make that mind-set shift, here is my number one tip for quitting fast fashion:

STOP GOING TO FAST FASHION STORES.
In real life and online.

Vintage clothing labels.

This is the one big thing that really helped me kick my fast fashion habit; I stopped looking to shop fast fashion. I stopped visiting the mall, target, stopped going to online shops. Stopped looking at sales and deals. Mostly I stopped looking at clothes at all, unless I was in my own closet or at the thrift shop. Since we are consumers, we are conditioned to look at sales, we are taught that merchandising and deals are important, that having more will make you feel better and shopping will make you happy. But we need to reconnect the human and environmental cost of the things we buy. That cheap, trendy, top is not just a inexpensive pleasure for you to have. That top was made by a real person who most likely worked in horrible conditions, used water that could have saved someone from thirst or hunger, shipped across the world leaving pollution and destruction in it’s wake, excreted microplastics into the oceans and air, and finally will be thrown away and end up in a landfill or burned to create even more waste. By changing the way we think, and eradicating the temptation of looking at fast fashion, we break the hold that consumerism has on us.

What has helped you quit or reduce buying fast fashion?

Pandemic Pantry | The Joy Of Using Up

When we first went in to lockdown and when the hours of the groceries were cut and stock was limited, I became very aware that I was scared of food scarcity.

I didn’t know this about myself before these events. I had no idea I would have a visceral, anxiety filled reaction of being scared about the loss of food, the lack of food, and the need to change the way I ate. My relationship to food may not always be healthy (whose always is?), but it is a huge part of my life. And the idea of not being able to eat the way I was used to scared me.

It took a little adjustment, but I discovered that I could still eat well, and that I wouldn’t have to change my diet too much, or lose out on things I enjoyed. Sometimes I couldn’t find what I wanted (tofu was scarce in the beginning), but I found that I didn’t mind having to come up with other ideas, or substitutions, to what I considered my staples. Soon, I was not only used to only going to the grocery every few weeks, but I found I enjoyed it and it was something that I wanted to keep after the time of covid is over.

Each week we stretch and stretch the food we have so that we can take less frquant trips to the supermarket. Some days it feels like there’s nothing left to eat. But each time we have found that we have plenty and are able to make delicious and nutritious meals. What we also discovered was that it was challnaging, interesting and fun to stretch what we had. To have to be innovative. To have to make do.

Now that groceries are better stocked and our garden is growing we don’t often have to go without what we want. Farm markets are open for fresh veg, bakeries are open for fresh bread. But now, as in the early days of lockdown, there’s a distinct pleasure when we use up an item and get the most out of it. It might be something that’s been in the pantry long before isolation, or it might be a fresh head of lettuce, that in “the old days” would have gone off before we got to it bc our food supply was ever incoming, overly abundant, and less time was taken to see what we had and what we had to use before our next supermarket run.

The Joy of Using Up that comes with many aspects of sustainability is always an unexpected pleasure.

Joy in the Morning

One of my goals in 2020 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.

I started Joy in the Morning by P G Wodehouse last summer as my beach book. In May 2020, while waiting at the vet for 5 hours, I finished it.

Bertie Wooster reluctantly accepts an invite to the village of Steeple Bumpleigh where Lord Worplesdon (Aunt Agatha’s second husband) lives, as he knows there will be a fancy dress party he can attend. His man, Jeeves, wants to do a little fishing. Little do they know they’ll be pulled into Nobby and Boko’s engagement, Florence and Cheesewright’s disengagement, all the misadventures of Edwin the Boy Scout and more…

I’ve read several of the Jeeves and Wooster Series, having grown up on the Fry and Laurie version form the BBC. These are books that make me laugh out loud; a very rare thing. They are silly and irreverant, with great imagery. But I do find them hard to get into sometimes. The language is unique, which is partly what makes Wodehouse’s books great, entertaining and intelligent, but also difficult to break in to. I almost feel like you have to prepare yourself to go back in time to the roaring 20s and you must act and listen accordingly. But once you’re there, it’s a great joyous ride, with reference to poets, Shakespeare, activities, fashion and songs of the time, almost impossible predicaments, a host of odd and funny characters, frightful Aunts, and a whole lot of silliness. A word that comes to mind is uproarious. I highly recommend Joy in the Morning, and any PG Wodehouse books I’ve read, for those who love humorous novels, silly characters, books about the teens and 20s, and all those who love distinctly British comedy.

Who are your favorite humorous novelists?

I really loved this little illustration on the back of this novel. Hilarious, once you’ve read the book!

Mad Cat Garden | May 2020

Up until May, it felt like the landscape of our garden changed daily. In May , it feels like we have settled down a bit. While we are still adding features, plants, and debating even more, May was more a month for planting and growing. And best of all, for our first harvests!

Right at the beginning of the month we got a dirt delivery and in our style put it on the front lawn. I highly recommend anyone with the space, who is building a garden of any kind, to have dirt delivered. The delivery fee often seems high, but the lack of plastic, not having to go to any big box stores, and that you can know where the dirt comes from is totally worth it. We really struggled with getting bags of dirt for many reason, so this is a great alternative. And you are supporting local businesses not corporations!!

I’ve never put the garden in a before and after picture here, side by side. I thought that would be great for this post, since so much has changed from the beginning of May to the end.

In the first picture above, our first backyard bed was just planted with tomatoes and peas at the start of May. Towards the end we have moved some things around, added flowers for pollinators, our peas are blossoming, and everything has grown. You can see in the second pic above that we have a new bed that we made at the end of April and filled with our dirt delivery. We made this bed form a cabinet that was in our basement when we bought the house.

In the two pictures above, we have our “lettuce bed” when we first planted it with baby plants from a local market, our over wintered spinach and red onion. Next we have it really filling out, with more lettuce to replace those the squirrels ate.

We continually seed our “radish bed” so that we have radishes growing in all stages. We put some potatoes in that bed and purple cauliflower as well. Our raspberries live right next door and they have grown tons over the month. I’m unconvinced if we will get berries. I’m pretty sure the birds and squirrels will eat them before we do, if berries arrive.

Another addition we made in late April was to add a little bed for just flowers. We repurposed an old drawer (which we had previously urban foraged as a shelf), and put any and all wild flower seeds we had in it. This year we are concentrating on using up old seeds which may or may not be viable. By the end of May, quite a few of the seeds had come up.

No before pics of the front beds this time. In the original front bed, the orange thyme is going bananas, we’ve put tomatoes bc they do so well there, flowers for pollinators, and a flower that we planted last year is coming back up. The herb bed, below, has new basil from the local market and we planted a bunch of herb seeds. We are waiting to see if they come up.

We added another bed in the front as well, but haven’t planted anything in it by the end of May. Now we have 3 beds plus a few pots in the front yard. We have 9 beds in the back (two of which are blueberries and one for wildflowers). We have many many pots in the back yards as well as a place for raspberries. In June we hope to plant and tend but I don’t think we will add more beds. We have other projects planned, tho!

In May we ate herbs, radishes, lettuce, kale, snap peas, and spinach, from the garden. The bluebs are bluing and there are many so we are hoping to eat some soon. There are blossoms on the tomatoes and almost blooms on the peppers. We are sooo excited to eat more in June.

Are you keeping a garden this year? What style do you have (raised bed, in the ground, container, windowsill)?

2020 Monthly Goals | May Recap and June Goals

My goals for may were a little more amorphous than some months. I did so so on them, not terrible.

Do not over work/take your days-off off.
Having not to go to work for six weeks, was some of the most relaxing and rewarding time of my adult life. I want to make sure I carry some of that feeling over while my work schedule is still sparse.
I think I made good effort in this department, but I must say that the days blur together. There were many weeks and many days that I didn’t know when we were, where we were.

Remember all your goals/the things you liked about lockdown/isolation.
I really want to make sure that I keep up with habits and routines I had over those six weeks. It was a good lesson in what’s important and what needs to remain priority.
This was harder, but I also think counts as a partial check off. It’s more nebulous and therefore harder to quantify, but it is something that I must keep trying for.

Keep sourdough starter alive.
I’m doing so far so good on a once daily feeding.
While it is true, my sourdough is still alive, I could have done better at this goal.

Walk every day.
Gotta keep it up.
I did well here, not always walking 10K steps, but rarely walking none.

Tackle one big project.
In the beginning of April I had high hopes to get some projects done. This month, I want to make sure to do at least one of them.
This might’ve been the biggest fail, but as it turns out on the first day of June, this was completed.

On to June. Summer months are always tough for goals. Partly bc it’s the busiest time at my work, partly bc summer should be for fun, not necessarily for productivity. With both those things in mind, I have created some goals that fulfill both aspects.

Inbox to zero, but really this time
Cluttered inbox, cluttered mind, am I right?

Make 1 comic
Something I’ve been missing.

Make 1 video
Something I want to get better at.

Make more concrete goals from the things you like about isolation
Something for the long term.

Stretch
Something for the very long term.

Did you accomplish your goals in May? What are your goals for June?

May Plant Update

May was another great month for plant observations in and around our neighborhood. Mostly I only want to look at flowers! We have seen so many iris variations this spring so far! We’ve also seen some fantastic evening vistas. We observed some critters (goslings!, baby starlings! bunnies!), some beaches, and some fields but we stayed home mostly and enjoyed our near surroundings in this month.

Someone’s amazing lavender plant.

All yellow.

All purple (from our yard).

Golden light!

Gorgeous pine bow.

The light and color of this plantain is amazing. Even the chip bag.

I love finding beautiful ground cover…

…but I don’t know what any of them are.

This is our orange thyme which has been growing for years and makes these little purple blossoms.

The color on this unknown bush is stunning!

Like a firework.

Crane on Sunset Lake.

This poor catbird dashed itself on our front window. My husband went to help it, but it was already breathing it’s last breath. We mourned for it and buried it in the back yard. No catbirds came to our house for a week. Now they are retuning.

Are you still isolating at home? Maybe your sequestered some where not your home? What have your plant observations been for May?

Man in the Dark

One of my goals in 2020 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.

I avoided reading this book for a while, as it looks vaguely political (it is) and violent (it really is), but last month I finally read Man in the Dark by Paul Auster.

August Brill can’t sleep. After his wife dies and he gets in a car accident, after he goes to live with his daughter in Vermont, after his granddaughter’s boyfriend is killed and he can’t help her heal, after he can’t finish his memoirs from grief and self loathing, August Brill can’t sleep. So he tells himself stories at night instead.

Theres something I find comforting about Paul Auster’s books, even though many of them have deeply disturbing aspects. I think it’s his plain writing style but also that his books are often set in places that are familiar to me. We both lived in Brooklyn, we both visited the same areas in Vermont. When I read his books, I feel like I know where they are set, like I’ve been there, and that makes them all the more compelling. I struggled to get into this book, and once I did, I struggled to know that there would be a violent event that would be hard to read. But I ended up really enjoying Man in the Dark. This is the most outwardly violent book I’ve ever read of Auster’s, although I would say that City of Glass is strangely violent. I thought it was interesting that this book takes place in two stories, one in real life (although this book is fiction) and one in a frictional story that the main character is creating within the book. I’m not sure I have ever read a book with this devise that reads so smoothly. I would recommend this book for those who feel comfortable with reading about violent acts, those who like stores about people reflecting on thier lives, and those who like alternate history stories. But I would also give a warning that this book has disturbing graphic violence, military violence and should not be read lightly.

Have you ever put off reading a book bc it was political in nature?

Something to Try: A New Morning Routine for 2020

I've been trying to be more producticve in the mornings for...oh, my whole llfe. 

Here is the morning routine I’ve been in for the last few years, modified for isolation (no taking my husband to the train any more!) over the last few months:
Wake - no phone
Bathroom
Make coffee, feed cats
Write down dreams
Bujo than check internet
Blog work
Dishes
Something to eat
Husband gets up and “goes to work”

Like many routines, this is the basics but often changes due to random circumstances. This is just loosely what I do each day. Although in some ways I make an effort to stick to aspects (like not going on the phone before writing down my dreams, or trying to fill out my bujo before I check the internet), I haven’t been very discilpined about any of it. I feel like I’m really missing out on time to be productive as well as a way to start my day in a slow and healthy manner. Since the future of what mine and my husband’s work life looks like and how much time we get to stay at home is up in the air, I want to create a better more productive routine to get the most of my mornings. This includes getting more work done, but also being more mindful and happy.

Building routines take work and effort and sometimes those are the last things I want to exert in the morning. But I also know that when I start my day on the right foot (so to speak) I feel better all day. So I’ve been thinking for a few weeks now about what my ideal morning routine would look like and how I can achieve that.

Here are some things that I really want to incorporate into each morning:
Going outside
Early morning walk
Reading
Staying off the computer
Sourdough
Cleaning and tidying

I think one of the most important aspects of this new routine and one of the things that will be hardest for me will be to change where I do certain things. In my current routine, I sit in front of the computer almost immediately and this allows me to use it very easily, almost without thinking. In an effort to be more mindful about each aspect of the routine, this needs to stop.

Here’s what I would like to work on in the month of June. This doesn’t incorporate every aspect that I want to have, but it’s a good start:
Wake up - no phone
Bathroom
Cats and coffee
Write dreams (at computer)
Read and bujo (either away from computer or outside)
Go outside, even just to check the garden
Dishes, breakfast, tidy
News for 15 min only
Blog work
Sourdough
Into the day

I don’t want to put a time stamp on any of these action bc I although I want my mornings to be more productive, that doesn’t mean that have to be rushed. But I would like to get back in the habit of getting up “early” and have this entire routine done, at a leisurely pace, before my husband gets up to start his work day or, before I have to go to work myself.

What routines do you find helpful in the morning? What is the one things your morning would not be complete without doing/having? Do you have any advice for sticking with a productive and midful morning routine?

Pandemic Pantry: The Use First Bin

A great way to keep your Pandemic Pantry organized and make sure you are getting the most out of what you buy, all while reducing food waste is to create a Use First Bin. It doesn’t have to be an actual bin, it can be a shelf, the counter, or just a list where you keep all the food that you need to eat first sorted.

This is a simple concept but one that will save you time, effort, and food waste. It’s especially easy now that we are taking time to make a food inventory and extensive lists each week or so. Simply group any items that you need to eat together. Reasons why things need to get eaten might vary. Perhaps they are veg about to go bad, or the last little bits of your dry goods, or items that are getting past their expiration dates. Or maybe you’ve just been putting off eating these items. Remember when you got those grits six months ago for a recipe and still have half the box today? Put them in the bin.

I don’t use an actual bin, but I keep a running list when creating my pantry inventory to remind me what I need to eat. I will add items that are going to go bad, or that have lingered in the pantry too long. I also make notes on what I can use them for on the same list and then refer back to it when deciding what to eat for the day.

Have you organized your pantry like this? Do you find it hard to eat up items in your pantry?

Catherine (Cat) Agopcan, who I follow on insta, recently had a great post about her Eat First Box. She has a great page with lots of helpful advice and is fellow New Jerseyian.

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