Mad Cat Garden | October 2020

It was an interesting month for the Garden. Most of October was dreary, rainy, and sparse in the garden. But there were moments of brightness and sun. For some reason, I didn’t take too many photos this month, so the Oct tour of the garden will be specific.

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At the beginning of the month, our morning glories were still going strong and even coming up through every break in our concrete patio. We love the morning glories and want to think of a way to train them better next year.

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We have been moving things into the green house, trying to get everything we want to save (or try to save) inside before the first frost. When the sun is out, it’s so nice to peek inside the walls. We have some foraged furniture and shelves inside, but it’s not big so it’s a fun puzzle to try and fit everything.

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There was a lot for this month, we lost a lot of our last tomatoes and peppers as they were shook of the bushes.

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Our pineapple sage went to flower this month and it was brilliant!! The flowers are beautiful.

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Our orange thyme mascot is still doing well and got a little company for October.

What was your garden doing this month?

October Plant Update

Looking back at October’s plant observations, I sort of only took pictures of the brightest and bluest days! there was a lot of rainy days in October, that shook the blooms and fruit off the plants and bushes. There were copious downpours that made all plants grey, sodden and sagging. But there were clear bright days as well. Flowers hanging on for dear life.

Tall trees in Northern NJ.

Tall trees in Northern NJ.

Anyone know what these white drop blooms are?

Anyone know what these white drop blooms are?

Looking quite idyllic with a busy road right and train tracks out of view.

Looking quite idyllic with a busy road right and train tracks out of view.

Tempted to buy any flower still blooming when we visit the farmers market.

Tempted to buy any flower still blooming when we visit the farmers market.

American Beauty Berries provide a pop of color!

American Beauty Berries provide a pop of color!

Someone said these are Asters?

Someone said these are Asters?

This moth was STUNNING! Huge and iridescent.

This moth was STUNNING! Huge and iridescent.

One of my all time favorites.

One of my all time favorites.

I never managed to see what this fellow was stalking.

I never managed to see what this fellow was stalking.

Our pumpkin fam.

Our pumpkin fam.

But just down the road, they go bigger.

But just down the road, they go bigger.

What was October like where you live? Was it a month full of observation or light on them?

October in Review

I feel like this was a very typical October and a very atypical October. Pumpkins, cooler weather, bright skies and rainy days, the winding down of the garden, beach trips, neighborhood cats, spooky walks, and spooky decor. But in other ways, this felt like the beginning of something new. As leaves turned and heavy work load slowed down, other things were ramping up.

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In the start of the month we were still eating a lot from the garden, we had our biggest raspberry crop! We spent time outside and some days were warm and beautiful.

We had rainy and cold days this month, too. Bleak and foreboding. But on one of these rainy days we added a new member to our family! More on Martin, soon.

We visited farm markets and picked our pumpkins. We saw #watchercats here, there, and everywhere.

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Besides our new life with Martin, I also started a BookTube/YouTube channels and that is a new obsession and a new way of life. I really like to think of video ideas, and even though I’ve only made a few, I want to become better at making videos!

October felt productive, exciting and fast. The month flew by, but looking back, I can hardly remember the start of the month: So much has happened!

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The end of October marks the start of the end of the year. It feels like only a short time ago, that I was shocked we were in the beginning of 2020, now we are nearing it’s close.

2020 was nothing like the world expected, October was not what I thought it might be. What will the last two months of the year bring?

6 More Months of Zero Waste | October - Beach Clean Up

The Autumn always makes me want to get out into nature. Perhaps it’s knowing that soon it will be too cold to really explore. Perhaps it’s the joy of the changing of the seasons. I tend to head out to the beac to go for long walks, collect sea glass and beach items, and relax. Sometimes we will head to a park to take a long hike and seed search. Sometimes we just walk around our neighborhood.

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This is a perfect time to be mindful of the trash and litter we see as we are spending time outdoors.

But we can do more than just be mindful of it. Every time we go out we can do a little clean. You can go as small or as big as you like with this idea. There are many litter picking goals you can use on walks:
Do a 5 minute beach clean before you start your walk.
Make a goal of picking up 5-10 pieces of trash on your hike.
As you finish a walk, pick up trash only on your way home.
Plus far more! Your imagination if the limit of the challenges you can create.

Being mindful of litter will make you see it everywhere and it’s easy to pick some on your way. But it’s also easy to get overwhelmed. Just the amount of disposable make or other PPE your see will make your head spin. While it’s important to help by picking up some trash, it’s also important that you are able to relax and decompress in nature.

Since I mostly go to the beach, I like to take my long walk, relax, search for treasures, not trash, and then as I head back home I pick up as much trash as I can carry.

Some tips for a beach clean or a litter hike:

Bring a bag - you can collect cool things as well as trash!
Scope out where to throw away the trash you pick up - It’s good to know where you will dump your trash after youve picked it up. I try not to throw away my trash at the beach cans, if possible, bc I know they just get blown about and the trash wil end up back on the sand.
Bring gloves - if you don’t want to p0ick up tash with your bare hands. Sometimes if I forget gloves, I will not pick up certain items like masks or tampon applicators.
Remember you can’t pick up everything - My friend used to tell a story about his friend, who on coming to a huge swath of trash, started to cry. She was so over whelmed, she couldn’t handle the full extent of the litter. I think of this story all the time, I often feel like this way. Or worse, I feel apathetic to the whole situation. I would rather pick up 1 peice of trash than turn a blind eye on all of it. So don’t beat yourself up if you can’t get every item of trash you see.

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For October, try picking up 1 or more or many more pieces of trash on your next walk. This is a great addition to our goals of becoming more zero waste every month.

Where do you like to walk? On the beach or in your neighborhood? Do you pick up trash in another area on your zero waste travels?

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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.

The Crying of Lot 49

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

My husband had always recommended The Crying Of Lot 49 by Thoman Pynchon to me, but I didn’t know what it was about. I had a vague sense it was about war. I was wrong.

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When Oedipa Maas’ ex-lover passes away and unexpectedly makes her co-executer of his will. When she travels down to San Narciso, near LA, an unexpected world is opened to her. Oedipa’s life will never be the same after this seemingly mundane task.

When I was rearranging our book shelves a few months ago, I saw that we had two copies of this book. It’s so slim and enticing! I finally picked this book up and what a great decision! This is a new favorite book for sure! Published in 1965 and set in an alternate California, this book takes the world we knows but puts a new spin on it. Secret societies, LSD pushing doctors, grave diggers and bone sellers, rewritten plays, mysterious authors, love triangles, and underground mail services, are just a few things that Oedipa discovers when she delves deeper into her ex lover’s life and death. The writing in this book was at times strange and obscure, many references were strange to me, or outdated. But it made this book totally immersive and and experiential. I loved the concept of a world just out of sight of the world we know and that one secret society can birth many more. This book made me start looking for clue and conspiracies everywhere. Crying of Lot 49 was a delightful read that just made me happy. I couldn’t wait to get back to it each day. I highly recommend this book to all those interested in bizarre and compelling writing and stories, readers who like short and exciting books, fans of conspiracy theories or underground societies and anyone who likes alternate histories.

Have you read this book? Did you love it or were you weirded out?

More about books here:
BookTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClPkVNjQxG79IBr6Iu1EFPg
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/120401161-ana-mo-shoshin

The Circus in the Woods

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

I’m not sure where I got this book, I vaguely think it was on a trip to VT. I’ve had The Circus in the Woods by Bill Littlefeld for many years. I picked it up several times, but I could never get into it and I could never get rid of it. Now, I’ve read it!

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Molly and her little sister know that thier annual family trip to Vermont is a slice of magic. Getting to be away with thier parents and having the freedoms of a cabin community is a special time. The arts and craft leader even seems otherworldly. But when Molly finds a secret in the woods the idea of how magic Vermont totally changes.

For years, whenever I picked this book up something stopped me from reading it. Now that I have read it, I know why that was. This book was not good. The character were lacking depth, the magic in this book was lacking in depth, the writing was one dimensional. I feel that one reason for this was an older male author writing a coming of age story for a prepubescent girl. Having been a teenage girl myself, this felt very fake to me: someone writing about something that they have no personal experience with. I could see that a writer might try to step outside of their own life to write stories, but these characters were neither interesting nor compelling. I found it disappointing that some of the ideas in this book that were interesting (a circus in the woods! A magical escape!) were poorly explored and fell completely flat. I would not call this book boring, bc events did happen. Perhaps “tedious” is a better word. It didn’t take me long to read this book, but I was happy when it was over. Something I did enjoy about this book was that it made me reminisce about the Summers that I spent in VT. This is a very niche upside to this book to say the least. Unless you fit that niche, I don’t see any reason to recommend or read this book.

Have you read a bad book this year?

This review is part Saturday of my Week of Books. Check out mynew YouTube/BookTube Channel: Mad Cat Quilts for more book content (plus cats, garden, sewing, eating, asmr, etc…!). New videos on Mondays.