October 2025: Courage is found in unlikely places

October saw some kind of turn in my trajectory, mainly with how I manage my energy. I got sick of feeling tired and hungry, so I started eating way more protein and fiber in the month of October, including black beans, egg whites, and of course my beloved squashes. Here's a recap of the month:

Autumn leaves came and went

There were pretty yellows and oranges this year.

The outdoor farmer's market season ended

Things heat up in mid-October for "leaf-peeping season"

 

2026 planners arrived!

For 2026 I want to add a "Weeks" style planner for my weekly appointments and plans

The Weeks is squirrel-themed (right). I'll also do my regular daily art journals (left)

I order my planners from JetPens and added some squirrel washi tape and a stamp

I also got a cute "pencil board" for the Weeks planner (you put it behind the page to give you a solid writing surface).

New donuts in town!

The Mermaid Collective is having donut popups as they get their retail space organized for 2026. This box of 6 had 2 pumpkin, 1 chocolate, 1 maple-bacon, 1 apple fritter, and 1 plain donut. Decadent & delicious!

 

In other news, we had an unexpected hot-water heater replacement and an unexpected emergency trip to the vet (the kitty who needed help is doing fine now!).

September 2025: Ride now! Ride!

September seemed to gallop by quickly, with many high blue days. As one would hope. Fall came. We put away the air conditioner. I read The Handmaid's Tale for my book group and it was chilling--I liked it. I passed my 14-year service date at my current job. I'm taking a college course in Bioethics and learning about the end of life and the begining of life and the importance of autonomy and beneficence.

Here are a few photos, most taken on September 1 at the annual Guilford Fair.

An elegant bunny

Gorgeous prize-winning bouquet full of lisianthus,
reminds me of my wedding flowers

Prize-winning veg with sign: "ALL THESE GREW UNDER-GROUND"

Prize-winning fancy work (quilt) made out of old COVID masks

After the fair we went to Lilac Ridge Farm
for the best (organic!) creemee in town

A few days later we had a celebration at work.
A local ice cream truck came and
everyone got free ice cream

Breakfast-less one morning at the farmer's market,
I splurged on this cannoli-style pastry

August 2025: Singing Into the Sun

August was a pretty good month, at least in my little world. Lots of ice cream was consumed. The weather changed from hot and humid to cooler and autumnal, and it was very nice. Tomatoes & cucumbers are at their abundant peak. People went back to school. Every Friday I make myself a pot of chilled zucchini soup and eat it for lunch with a single homemade English muffin, split-toasted-and-buttered. Here are a few photos from August.

 

American Lotus Extravaganza

I found these while kayaking around on the West River in Brattleboro. They seem to be Nelumbo lutea and they are completely magical. 

 

Mountaintop Reclaimed

In 2020 I sprained my ankle running down a local mountain, and had not been back on that trail since. Until August 2025! I went on a redemption run on the very same trail. Along the way I took some photos of woodland textures as well as a mostly dried-up stream that is usually running.

 

 

 

 

Parting Shot: NYC in the Morning

At the end of August I went on a little solo road trip that found me driving north past NYC at 7am. I took this awkward photo through the passenger-side as I drove home to the sounds of the new Wet Leg album, Moisturizer.

July 2025: Like Wind in the Meadow

July had some HOT days. I am growing cucumbers this summer and I try to water them each evening so they can grow nice and juicy. (So far I've gotten about 5 small cucumbers.) 

Family news: We adopted another kitty! She is 3 years old, black and fluffy with green eyes, and named Elvira. She is quite quirky. Sometimes she'll lie on her back on the floor with her fluffy tummy showing and her all her legs sticking up. Sometimes she'll lash out at us randomly (she had been living in a home with little kids and she did NOT like them). Sometimes she'll sit on us in the early morning and let us pet her. Our other new kitty is getting used to Elvira but not a big fan yet. We hope someday they might be buddies. 

 Here are some food & garden photos from July 2025.

 

A little garden harvest

You know I'm obsessed with squash.
That includes Zucca (gourd-shaped) pasta.
What a perfect shape for a meaty sauce!

Another squash love story: I braised these squash
"steaks" in tomato paste with garlic, basil, and
chopped Roma tomato.

Then I served it on crunchy toast slathered with
feta spread. DELICIOUS

Black raspberries from the hedgerow.
Pure taste of summer.

Culprit!! This bunny was actively eating my kale.
Can you even?!?!

  

June 2025: Arise, Arise!

So now the US is building (more) concentration camps and bombing new countries (Iran). The mass media is whipping the public into a frenzy about whatever they can think of and they really do seem like "fake news." Plus we also have "AI slop," which is stuff made up by large language models and algorithms and looks real but is not real. So, where IS the real news? Is anyone in a position of authority talking sense or doing anything useful? We wouldn't know because it either doesn't get covered or things get skewed so that good actions are made to seem bad and bad actions are made to seem good. 

June was the month of "No Kings" protests in the US. And here are a few things I did in June, just for remembering. 

 

Creemees and Cucumbers

Both of these delicious things are in season in Vermont in June, and I've been having both whenever possible. There are about 5 places around town to get Creemees (soft-serve ice cream)--a farm, a diner, a dedicated creemee stand, and 2 ice cream shops. My favorite is a chocolate-vanilla twist, but around here they like to do a chocolate-maple twist. (I don't love maple so I just get chocolate in those cases.) And the summer cucumbers at the farmer's market are amazing--crunchy, green-tasting, and cool and refreshing. I buy 2 cucumbers every Saturday, along with 2 juicy heirloom tomatoes that we consume throughout the week.

 

Netflix is back

I needed a bit of summer entertainment so I resubscribed to Netflix. Bad relationships and murder are hot on Netflix, and I've finally just given up and started watching that stuff. So far I watched The Four Seasons (8-episode series starring Tina Fey & Steve Carrell about the ups and downs of 3 couples (mostly downs)), Sirens (6 episodes about a weird rich woman played by Julianne Moore--pretty sexist), The Perfect Couple (6 episodes about a weird rich woman played by Nicole Kidman--this one had a better plot including a murder), and Dept Q (9 episodes about a Scottish cold case team based on a Danish novel).

 

Kayak season began 

I try to get out on the water at least once a week to paddle around.

I saw this majestic catalpa tree in bloom while kayaking

Running in the woods a LOT

This is my happy place and my safe space. It feels good to run around twisty trails amongst the pines and maples and oaks and dirt and meadows. I'm not even listening to podcasts while I run--I'm just breathing and moving out in nature and it's incredible.

 

Random photos

Our "hugels" are now just regular garden beds

Homemade rhubarb pie a la mode

Bibim guksu (cold spicy noodles with cucumber & egg)

May 2025: There is always hope

Hello reader! May 2025 seemed to pass by quickly, though it's a long month so plenty of things happened. Like these things:

 

Drawing studio

I went to an evening drop-in session at the local art school where I had taken a drawing class last year. I wanted to get some pages messy in my pretty little lavender sketchbook. They have good props at the art school--here's a drawing of a feather and a bone.

 

 

Cat grief, cat joy

We were devastated to finally have to say goodbye to our sweet good loving beautiful kitty-cat. She had lived for 20 years and taken care of us with snuggles and supervision since we met her 10 years ago. We were so sad to have to let her go due to declining health and no longer being able to get around. She left a gaping cat-shaped hole in our home and in our hearts.

As a result, we went to "take a look" at a nearby Humane Society, and we fell in love with a new kitty who is 2 years old, very sweet and playful, and seems to be made of stripes and muscle. Her shelter name is Baja Blast and she is wonderful. I am trying to do "cat training" with her to maybe teach her things like jumping over objects and learning to fetch. We'll see! We are grateful to be able to have another sweet cat in our lives.

 

Summer Farmer's Market

The outdoor version of the Brattleboro Farmer's Market started up the first weekend of May, and we were there to buy things and see the May Pole dancing!

May Pole & ribbons in the background

 

 

MIT Swapfest

One Sunday I took two teenagers to Cambridge, MA, for an electronics flea-market-type-thing that takes place in a parking garage on the MIT campus from April to October. If you are in the MIT area and interested in computer bits or even just swap meets, I highly recommend this event! There are no regular cars in the garage on the day, so you can just walk up and keep spiraling around floor after floor to see what vendors have to sell.

 

Looking up one of the aisles of the parking garage

I loved this vendor--something for everyone

Did you want an ancient television?

"Cage Free Organic Computer Parts"

Old old old tech

All kinds of tools

Typical scene

Another typical scene

High School Jazz ensemble concert

We went to an outdoor concert of the High School jazz band on a lovely spring evening outside a local church. They are a very talented group and sounded great, taking solos and they even had a guest singer (also a high school student) for a great rendition of "Blue Moon." I drew the musicians while sitting on a folding camp chair listening to the show:

 

April 2025: We Will Outlast Them

Oh hello! It looks like April has now passed, like rain on the mountain. Here are some things I got up to this past month.

More Running

I'm now up to running 3 times a week, which feels good! I'm mostly running in the woods, doing 2-3 miles at a time for now. I like to ease into things slowly so I don't scare myself off.

Rutland Farmer's Market

I'm continuing on my mission to learn more about local farms and food systems. One Saturday in April I made a round trip to Rutland to visit the Vermont Farmer's Food Center, which I had heard about at the NOFA-VT conference I attended in February. It's an organization that is refurbishing an old industrial site to be a food hub, commercial kitchen, and farmer's market. Their winter farmer's market is in a big hall and full of vendors of all kinds of interesting and delicious produce, meats, and prepared foods.

My haul includes spinach, apples, chicken, chevre, and Scottish shortbread.

An old train car on the site

Open flag flying!

Part of the complex... with sculpture

From a corner of the big, bustling hall

 

 

Greens CSA

Another thing I'm doing to support our local food system and local farmers is taking part in Community Supported Agriculture (where you purchase a share of produce in advance, then make weekly pick-ups for a set period). This is a Greens CSA with lots of  goodies from the greenhouse, as well as roots and squash left from last season. It is VERY exciting to go each week and see what my selection will be. I get to pick 7-8 items each week, and they vary slightly each time. So far the selection have included beets, carrots, Tetsukabuto squash, kale raab, regular kale, collards, parsley, spinach, mustard greens, and Claytonia (see below). I am loving the influx of farm-fresh surprises.

Each item says what it is and how many to take

There are 7-8 bins to choose items from

Noisy goats

This is claytonia, a succulent salad green that's great with a light dressing

Some Claytonia leaves have little flowers in the center

 

Other April Photos

This is garlic cream pasta with chicken & spinach

First creemee of the season!

Blood root in bloom

Crocus blossoms & snowdrops early in the month