It’s August 6 but day 5 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I’m running a day behind. I hope I can catch up and not fall further behind. It’s another hot day. Still no rain. I’m trying to work smarter and make life a little easier. It was tempting to skip my exercise class this morning. It wouldn’t be a smart thing to do so I tossed that idea. I need to keep healthy, fit and strong. I had a good workout and stopped at the community garden to water my brother’s and our plots. We share watering duties on alternate days. Our plots are side by side. It saves time and energy for both of us.
The day is hazy. The sun hidden by smoke from forest fires. The temperature is 31℃. The world looks uncertain and scary. Welcome to our new reality. Despite this, I am optimistic, putting my hope in my garden basket. Thanks to the river that runs through our city, we are able to water, water and water. We have such an abundance from all our gardening efforts in our greenhouse, outside garden at home, the community garden and the city allotments. Here are some of our harvest.
I can see I have my work cut out for me preserving and not letting things go to waste. My bowlful of Roma tomatoes are stewing on the stove. I’m doing the easy peasy. They will be jarred and frozen for spiced up tomato sauce when the need arises.
It’s day 4 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. It’s a good day for another show and tell. These summer days are so busy with our prolonged heat wave and drought. My days are filled with watering, watering and more watering. Now the crops are maturing and we are overflowing with harvest. There’s little time to sit, be thoughtful and write something intelligent. So let me show you a little of where I live.
The herb spiral is in the immediate area as I step down from the deck. It’s made out of urbanite – broken up concrete from our front walk two summers ago. It was an immediate success. The herbs took to it like they’ve been growing there for years. I found the little monk statue at a garden center. He was meant for it and he reminds me of my Sheba every time I see him. Sheba was with me for almost 14 years and went to doggy heaven last May. The herb spiral sits in the space where a cherry bush sat. Sheba liked to pick the cherries when they came in season. It was also a cool place for her to lay under in summer.
Beyond the spiral is our bicycle shed. On top of the shed is a living roof. It’s the first year for it so it has mostly Bachelor’s Buttons growing with some chives and sedum. It’s a very dry summer with no rain so not many native wild flower seeds germinated. Underneath there’s an old wood burning stove, all cleaned and polished up. Will be nice to cuddle up to for cool autumn days and evenings. Beyond the shed is a solar passive greenhouse which is not shown. It’s for another time.
These are my guardian protective angels in the corners of the garden. They are the spirits and eyes to watch over and guard where I live.
It’s day 3 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I’m feeling challenged to get the words onto the page. It has been overcast most of the day. It is cooler, but the house is still fairly warm from yesterday’s heat. The low during the night was 22℃. Still any temperature under 30℃ is a good day to bake bread.
It’s good that I’m an early bird since retirement. I’ve learned to get moving in the mornings during these hot, hot summer days. Seems like we are living under a heat dome. And there hasn’t been a break. This could be our NEW NORMAL. I better adjust and adapt. I can still live my best life. No need to cry Woe is me! That isn’t going to change anything. What is here is here. Does anyone hear any alarm bells besides me? No matter. I will proceed as best as I can.
This is turning out to be a laborious task. I’m toiling over my keyboard, pecking a letter at a time. The words, sentences and thoughts are difficult to organize. And dang! when I got a whole paragraph, I hit a wrong key and the whole thing disappeared. Pardon me while I cry ‘Woe is me!’ Baking bread is much easier. I know all the steps and measurements. I only messed up once and killed the yeast because the water was too hot. I ended up with unleavened dough for 6 loaves of bread. It wasn’t really a disaster. It made delicious flat bread and pizza dough. Most of the time I am overflowing with success.
Today was no exception. 6 beautiful golden loaves came out of the oven. The work doesn’t end there. It starts there with the clean up of endless washing of this, that and many other things. But apparently it is all worth the effort. I continue to do it as I continue to do the Ultimate Blog Challenge. Oh boy! what a struggle.
It is day 2 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I better seize the momentum of this newness to get going. I was going to reward myself after writing this post, but I failed the delayed gratification test. I already had my bowl of frozen maple walnut yogurt. It’s hot and I’m sweaty from freezing peas, doing the lunch dishes and watering part of the garden with the grey water. It’s a bit of a chore but well worth my effort. I didn’t realize how much grey water we let go down the drain until I started collecting it. I collect mostly just from washing lunch dishes. It can get labour intensive. I don’t have enough energy and stamina to do more. I have to be prudent with my resources.
Morning seem to be my most energetic self this summer. I try not to squander it away by being slothful and grumpy. I got myself off to an early start by booking an 8 am swim. Life is easier with commitments. Without, I am lost and adrift in the sea of freedom. Today I am rewarded with the pool all to myself. My grumpiness and frown are smoothed away in the water of the pool. There’s no worry of being too slow and having my toes grabbed from behind. I luxuriated in the peace and aloneness of just me and the life guard.
I love these mornings when I can get off to a good start. I can have them every day. It’s really up to me to make it happen. I had time to reflect on how as I swam up and down the lengths of the pool. I can choose to do the things I love, think the thoughts that build me up, spend time with positive people and those who are truly friends. I do have choices and control of many things that affect my well being. Now that I am more cognizant I can do better. I know I am not as grumpy as I used to be. I must be heading in the right direction.
The time after my morning swim is also perfect for heading to our community garden to weed, harvest and water. I am cooled and relaxed, ready to withstand the summer heat. And mornings are generally a bit cooler. It is wonderful to see all the greens of our efforts in the bright summer sun. It is not work but therapy for a gardener’s soul. Since it is a community garden I am happy and honoured to help another gardener water her plot. To be of service to another also adds to my well being. In return she has given me seedlings and apple sauce. Relationships is about reciprocity. Here are some of our happy plots.
I have become sodden with the summer heat. I can’t remember when I have shown up here. I no longer feel familiar with the word. The only thing I can do these days is water the greenhouse and gardens and watch Poirot on YouTube. I believe I am addicted to the peculiar little detective. I had to force myself away to come to the keyboard. Thinking and creating is so hard to do. I gave up on the index-card-a-day challenge after 40 days. It’s over tomorrow. I’m short 21 days. That doesn’t mean I have to give up. I can still finish it on my own time schedule. Do I have it in me?
It’s been a tough summer. It’s been a tough year. It’s a tough time all around. Nothing is like it used to be. Hasn’t it always been that way? We’re more aware now because Covid-19 changed everything. We have to change our ways of living on this planet. Yes, change is exhausting and I am exhausted but grateful at the same time. No, I can’t cry, Woe is me! because we are all in this together. I’m learning to suck it up, bolster myself and move forward as best as I can.
I have signed up for the Ultimate Blog Challenge of writing a post a day for the month of August. A commitment is a good prod in the right direction. I do take these challenges seriously. Here’s hoping I have enough stick-with-it to show up here every day this month. If I don’t have the words, I can do show and tell on what and how things are showing up in the greenhouse and garden. My goal for this challenge is showing up each day. It is a given that content and presentation are still very important to me. I will strive to do my best but it is not a do or die.
These long stretches of hot summer days make me feel as if life is in limbo. It’s difficult to do anything cerebral. My brain is overheated. It cannot think clearly. It’s best just to chill and do just what must be done. In the early cool of the morning, when the temperature is in the low 20s℃, I do my gardening maintenance. This morning I focused on the front yard, watering all my perennial beds and fruit trees. And while waiting for the 3 raised beds to be filled from the rain cachment, I weeded here and there. It took about an hour and a half. It’s all I am able to do.
Yesterday morning, my focus was the back garden. I still have seedlings and spaces to plant. The garden was still in shade. Now there are no more spaces. It is afternoon and the backyard is in full sun. It is hot and sunny without the spruce trees. They came down last August to build a small passive solar greenhouse. It is well worth it. Even in this first year and our inexperience, it has been very productive. It does add to my busyness but very worth it. It forces me to be more organized, to work smarter and to value my time.
It looks like we will have another week of this hot weather and maybe more. Another week of drawn blinds to keep the house cool. Drawn blinds makes it feel like there is an illness. Indeed, our planet is ill. It’s a little scary. No, it’s alot scary. Record high temperatures. No rain. The whole village of Lytton, British Columbia went up in flames on June 30th. Will this, too, become our new normal?
Another hot day. I’m feeling the heat. I’m being careful, watching and conserving my energy. I still want to record my thoughts and observations. They are not sharp or profound but one thing that I did noticed today was that it’s difficult to stop the loop of non-stop negative thoughts and self criticism. However, I had this light bulb moment – that I have to sing different tunes. When I was young, I loved listening to music. I rarely do that now but tunes play in my head now and again. Today Funny How Time Slips Away was in head jukebox.
So I got onto YouTube and searched it out. That led me to other songs. The amazing thing I rediscovered was I still love music. Sitting and listening without doing anything else soothed all thoughts and wrinkles from my head. Here is my playlist.
I like to say that I am relaxed and focused BUT I am not. The harder and more I tried, the worse I feel. Logic would say I should stop trying so hard and just relax. Sounds easy but it is very difficult to do. I am restless. My stomach is in knots. I’m trying to stop thinking but I am bombarded with thoughts. Relax! Quit thinking!Let everything go! I could feel the gears in my head going round and round, trying to make it work.
It doesn’t work that way. So here I sit, tap, tapping my anguish onto the page, doing a brain dump. It’s more or less Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages. In my case, it’s the Afternoon Pages. It works. I’m finding relief externalizing my pent up angst. Sometimes my thoughts drive me crazy, into a frenzy. I’m like that girbel on the wheel, going nowhere. I lose so much time and energy in this state. It’s better that I can exercise my fingers and let it all out in words. I can call it my brainstorming. I get ideas. I get relief. I get somewhere.
I’m working on getting out my quirks and kinks. I’m focusing on what I can do. I try not to blame other people for my short comings. It’s tempting to throw it on others, but in the long run the only control I have is what I do. That sucks but that’s reality.
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I had to abandon my Afternoon Pages yesterday. My mind was overloaded and stimulated. The day was getting on and so was I. So here I am the next day. It is late morning. I have time only to tap a few words before making lunch. I’m appreciating the tips from Chris Bailey’s The Productivity Project. Our/my attention span is short and getting shorter. There are so many distractions/things to check. For me it’s a constant scrolling – what is the temperature outside, what is the temperature in the greenhouse, messages, emails, social media….I didn’t realize how disruptive all that was for my brain until I cut back.
It’s not all that easy. It’s become such a habit. I find myself reaching for my smart phone whenever there is a lull, which is every few minutes. It helps if I leave it in a different room and if I ask myself if it’s important knowing a particular thing. What difference would it make? Quite often the answer is no difference and of no importance.
Now it is after lunch. I’m sitting with my cup of tea. I intend to finish this post at this sitting so the dishes can wait. If I was to do the dishes, it would lead to other chores. It would be more difficult to come back and refocus. That’s what happens with distractions. It costs more time and energy. When I am in a flow, I should go with it. Multitasking does not lead to flow. It makes me frenzied and freezes me up. It’s better for me to focus and do one thing at a time. Another important tip in being productive. It’s also important to know when to stop and that is now. Tomorrow is another day.
Just like that our heat wave is over. Not only that, it’s now cool. I woke up to 12℃ this morning, whereas only a couple of days ago I went to bed with 30℃. Life is like that now, swinging from one extreme to the other. Sometimes there is a short almost normal in between. Now is the time to pay attention and try to live the best rest of my life. I do need alot of help. My attention span is the size of a gnat. Can you believe that I paid my property tax twice this year? How inattentive can I be, especially when I do make written entries of paid bills. If I had only glanced up a few lines….
But not to worry. The city will probably send me a refund cheque or I won’t have to worry about paying next year. Do you know how hard it is to speak to a real person on the phone these days? I was lucky the first time I called the city when I was alerted that I had made another payment. It was first thing in the morning and a person came on the line after a few prompts. He told me to call the bank to have them stop payment because it hasn’t shown up on his end yet. But he could see that I’ve already paid up. I wasn’t so lucky calling the bank. No real person came on the line. No luck for me either at the bank in person. They could not stop payment. It had already gone through and because I had paid online, they can’t do anything.
All of this had cost me some time. It’s my own fault really for not paying attention to what I was doing. It cost me more time phoning the city back. Now all I can get is a recording about their high volume of calls and to visit their website. On emailing them, I was informed that they are experiencing a high volume of mail and not to expect an answer for 5 business days. If it is urgent call the telephone line! Round and round we go. It’s almost 5 business days since I’ve emailed the city. I have not heard from them yet.
It is helpful to pay attention where and when we lose time and energy. Most of us spend too much time and energy online and scrolling on our phones. The last few days, it’s cost me both, trying to fix my Fitness app. I still can’t log onto it doing everything I’m suppose to – even enlisting help from my fitness center. I’ve decided not to phone the helpline. I’m sure I will get a recording prompting me to press this and that. So while technology can help us, it also can do the opposite. It’s up to us to be mindful of how we use our gizmos.
I am glad to have stumble onto Chris Baily’s The Productivity Project. It came at a good time. The thing is I’m just reading it and not doing the assignments as he recommends. So I’m backtracking to make the lessons stick. Here are 4 tips from the project:
Consume caffeine strategically, not habitually.
Work on your hardest, highest return tasks at your peak energy time of day.
Focus on one task at a time. Multitasking is simply less productive.
Compartmentalize email and social media to specific times during the day.
I know these tips are really helpful. I did a caffeine fast for a week. I felt more relaxed and things tasted a lot better after. No. 2 is what everyone recommends. The hardest task requires more energy and focus. Multitasking screws up my mind and I make more mistakes. Limiting time on social media and online makes me feel more restful and peaceful. I’m not exactly that at the moment. I have been very busy during the heat wave to keep all our gardens and greenhouse watered. It didn’t leave me much spare time. Now is my unwinding time.
I am most happy when I am working on a project or challenge. Right now my challenge/project is writing this post and baking bread. I’m in between risings. I have a few minutes to tap out some first words/thoughts. I’ve been away for awhile. It might take some time for my fingers to limber up and my brain to gear up. Thank God the heat wave is over. The 30+- 40℃ have chilled. I don’t function well in heat but I did remarkedly well through it this time. And that is because I’ve learned to work smarter, not harder. I owe my thanks to Chris Baily of the Productivity Project.
I’ve finished baking my bread. The loaves are out, cooled, bagged and put away. The mixing bowl, tools and all the pans are washed and dried. After everything is said and done, I know that I’ve worked hard. I’m not sure about the smart part. But it is at the end of the day. I am tired. Though it is only 22℃ now, I feel hot. I am sure I am still processing the past week of heat. I do not bounce back like the EverReady Bunny. I’m more like the tortoise. I am slow but I try to be steady and committed.
I’m intent on writing this post as I had set out to do this morning. It’s a good thing that I chose only 2 things for today. I’m not sure I have enough energy for more. Oh, I’ve done more than just baking bread and writing this post. I’m talking about commitments- things I MUST do from start to finish. I have a bad habit of starting something and not following through. I hope to change that by working smarter, not wasting energy and time on the wrong things. Coming back to this writing space will help me chart my way. I’ve been away for too many days.
onethousandandtwo 