Marsia's Diary

That's great that you got some sunshine & got outside. It sounds like your critter situation is very similar to ours!
Also excellent that you are on a roll with sorting out your Mum's paperwork :)
 
Just catching up on your diary after being away Marsia. So many interesting insights. I love the sound of your thinking and the way that you're moving forward with your life--the yoga, the meditation, the wonderful hikes, good eating, connecting with family--it all sounds very good and well-balanced!
 
I swear, I've never lived anywhere like this where every single critter is after my veggies.
They must be particularly delicious! Wild greens usually contain a number of toxic/bitter compounds for pest control (more so the higher the number of animal munching on them in that area) so no surprise they prefer our bred-to-be-clean veggies.
 
so it was a wake up call to really work at the life I want, and not be complacent. It feels good to be proactive and going after what I want, even though it is something so quiet and taken for granted - calm! I like that word because it has hidden resilience in it, like how calm the Tibetan Buddhists are despite their incredible history.
As a fellow inheritor of anxiety I totally relate! It's nice to know that we can actually do something about these mind-states and work toward a calmer/happier self :)

I am happy that some vegan "dairy" products got so good tasting!
Yes so nice to have so many options available now!
 
What a really great, productive day! I haven’t decided what to put in my new raised beds....hmm....
 
Marsia reading your posts makes me want to get out and garden . Didn't get to as much as I wanted last year but following you I might just this year. You are so inspiring
 
Marsia don't really know I am really not green fingered . I was thinking of some raised bed tables as my back kills me when bending . Also I have some old plant beds that need completely clearing . Like you ivy briars etc . I will start when we move out of this cold spell.
You are doing amazing .
 
Enjoy your day :grouphug: My mom sent some pictures from our garden this morning where everything was covered in frost - lovely winter weather but so dark!
 
Your beds will be hard to manoeuvre into position, Marsia, I would think. Will you have help with that? I'm glad your days are starting to feel longer. Our days are so long & I do love it. Summer is only just kicking in here.
 
I've been thinking about willpower, and it seems like some people have a lot of it, but I don't. Instead I am discovering more this sense of stick-to-itiveness. I can just keep picturing what I want as far as health, and thinking about what might work and trying things. I don't have a lot of sheer drive and ambition, but I do have curiosity and like to just try things. I really think just keeping a picture of what I want in my head to inspire me is helping a lot.
I think in part willpower is habit. And believing you deserve to have a (long-term) goal of your own and to allocate resources to that instead of reacting to the needs around you all the time. What you did for your mom didn´t take dedication and willpower?
 
Good that you are down!

I think LaMa may be right about willpower, I don't feel like I have a lot, but know I have been able to stick to this diet and exercise for a long time. That is really new for me. I don't think I am a different or stronger person that I was, I just managed to get into the habit and now its not as hard as it was.

Given any more thought to where you might retire to?
 
Hi Cate! Yes, J and K will help me get the broken concrete beds up once I get everything prepared. Summer just kicking in sounds so wonderful!
I thought they would. It's going to be quite a hot day today (for Tassie) with extremely high UV so I may not get much gardening done. Yay for stick-to-itiveness & being down 3 lbs :)
 
Yay for getting the last of your Mum’s paperwork done, Marsia!
It’s not ridiculously hot, but as hot as I like it really ( about 27oC ). I could not live somewhere really hot.
 
Rob, I have been looking at elevations in Florida, and Apalachicola area is actually near the highest point in the state, so I've been looking at gorgeous pics of that area. We called a friend who lived in Florida and talked a while, too, but he is rather different than us in what he finds good and bad about a place, plus he didn't travel around much. So we'll call a more compatible friend who also lived in Florida soon. I have been looking up areas that flood from sea surges, and this area is good once you are a small distance from the coast. The area north of New Orleans on the big lake, however, was not good. It's fun looking up what sorts of natural disasters can get you! One thing though, is looking up the hurricane paths - there is no escaping those in Florida, they are everywhere! I wonder if you can make a storm cellar to throw some of your stuff in before you take off if there are hurricane warnings? Anyway, I am also looking at the areas around Beaufort and Charleston, South Carolina.
It can be fun thinking about all this and planning. Don't let it worry you too much, remember people have been living in these areas for a long time and most have never been too hard hit by storms. You are however wise to think about it ahead of time, finding a safe place to live is important. At a high level it is true that all of Florida is hurricane prone, but there are differences. The west coast and the northeast coast are lower risk, south Florida is the worst, see the link to a map below. You are right to think of storm surges, they are the most dangerous part of a hurricane. And they are complicated, shoreline shape is important, shallow offshore water is higher risk than deep. For that reason surges are usually less on Florida's east coast than west, and that is why Mississippi and Louisiana are the worst... Have fun with it! https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/climo/images/strikes_us.jpg
 
I wonder if you can make a storm cellar to throw some of your stuff in before you take off if there are hurricane warnings?
Not a very good idea, the cellar part anyway. Flooding is the biggest hurricane risk, so going down is not usually a good idea. A well built "safe" room high on good deep concrete pilings works best, but isn't always practical.

The biggest problem is knowing what to do in the event of an evacuation, it is not simple. We used to get "mandatory" evacuation orders way too often, 90+% of the time unnecessarily. You soon start ignoring the orders and then when the real one comes along it can be hard to know. The only meaning of "mandatory evacuation" is that it gives the government an out if the orders are ignored. There is no enforcement and probably no legal basis to enforce such an order. And while not issuing such an order if a real problem occurs gets officials in trouble, issuing lots of orders unnecessarily does not. The result is way too many evacuation orders, and not a lot of good thought given to them.

In Hurricane Rita probably more people died trying to evacuate Houston than would have been injured if the orders had never been issued. Last year I lost a second cousin in the Hurricane Laura evacuation, she was 95 years old, in poor health and in a nursing home. She died of a stroke while they were trying to get her out. Not sure the wrong thing was done with her, but it is a complicated thing to get right. She was counted as a hurricane causality statistic...
 
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