Death at High Tide

One of my goals in 2022 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.

My husband spotted this one and I was glad to get a cozy mystery based in the Jersey Shore area where we live. Death at High Tide is the 2rd book in the Jersey Shore Mystery Series by Beth Sherman.

Anne Hartaway has lived in Oceanside Heights her whole life. It’s convenient that her latest ghost writing job is currently in her town! Anne is not thrilled to be writing a celebrity memoir/self help book, but she is happy that she can do so from her ocean facing front porch. The actress she’s writing for is a total divva, super difficult, but Anne wouldn’t wish her dead! Unfortunately, that’s what happens and Anne decides she must find out what happened.

Anne stays on in her small town partly out of honor and duty, but I’m sure getting to solve mysteries is part of the reason she stays! Although she’s an easy going, mild mannered ghost writer, she sure does attract murders and trouble! I like that these cozy mysteries are fun and straightforward arcitypes of their genre with a jersey shore twist. I love that they are set in a fictional version of Ocean Grove NJ, where I have long visited and where I now live next door, in neighboring Asbury Park. Since these books are written and take place in the 90s, it’s fun to see some of the iconic landmarks and areas mentioned. And to see who things have changed over the years. It’s also interesting to see the area thru a cozy mystery lense, how things are described when they need to fit in with a cozy mystery plot. I really love to read books about places I know, visit often, or love. It’s fun to really understand where the books are set or how the events could have come to pass. The history of Ocean Grove and Asbury Park are very rich, so it’s surprising in many ways that there aren’t more books set here. This is a very silly but fun mystery series, pretty unbelievable but very readable. I would recommend this book to those who want to try writing cozy mysteries, this is a book that makes you feel like anyone can. I would also recommend this to people who like mysteries set near the ocean, readers who live in the area, and those who like summer mysteries.

What is you favorite geographical location for a book to be set?

This book can be seen in my July Wrap Up.

More about books here:
BookTube
Goodreads

March in Review

And here we go on to March.

But since these photos are still from Feb, let’s recap that: Birthdays, snow, sun, reading, and family get togethers. Some beach, some cats, and lots of work, but time for relaxing, too.

In March: More beach, more work, getting healthier, eating well.

Does everyone know I have a booktube? It’s something I’ve become very passionate about. I find it and interesting and new form of creativity and expression. I talk there all about books. But also zero waste and sustainability, and other things. It has over shadowed this space a little. I struggle with the whether there should be a lot of overlap between my channel and my blog. I’m inclined to say yes, with subtle variation and uniqueness between the two. But what do you think?

It does not feel like spring yet. Does March every? Will April swing us into Spring?

February in Review

When was February? Years ago now? It was a full month and a great month from what I recall!

I’ve gotten quite behind, in many respects. March saw a semi unexpected full break from the blog. But if you want to know a bit of what I was up to, you can always check out my Booktube Channel.

I’m also behind in posting my 365 photo project over on insta! I’m still taking the photos, but posting them slowly. We’re still IN Feb over there, if you want the nostalgia. I used to always post my favorite insta pics for my month in review. Now, they are the previous month. These photos are from Jan 2022. If you know me, you know change and change of routine is often a struggle for me. That may explain my recent absence from this space.

But here we are getting back on track; for March wrap ups, for continuing the year!

How did you February go, how has March went, where will April lead?

Mad Cat Garden | Jan 2022

Our 2021 garden was pretty awesome. It was expanded from previous years and we grew new and interesting things. It lasted well into the fall with gourds and flowers. But unfortunately I didn’t really chronicle much of last year. I want to make sure to change that in 2022. Starting in January, there’s not too much going on right now. The most exciting thing was the recent snow storm.

We actually had two storms in Jan. The first one was light and fluffy snow with almost no wind and it stuck to every branch. The next snow was wet and heavy and several feet deep.

I was pretty worried about our favorite herbs in the front beds during the second storm. But they seem to have come out unharmed. Except perhaps the curry. I was shocked it was still alive anyway. Do any of my readers have any experience with curry plants? I’d love some advice.

Did you have snow or other extreme weather in your area for the first month of the year?

I look forward to a whole new year in the garden!

January Plant Update

January was pretty cold, rainy, wet, and snowy. We went to the beach, looked to the sky, but there weren’t too many plants to discover, except under all the snow. They are dredging at one of our favorite beaches; Interesting to look at, not great for the environment. We got out to play and Irving came out in the snow, too! Check out more pics of the snow covered garden with the return of Mad Cat Garden, coming soon!

Big winter sky.

A pipeline of sand.

The start of a storm.

What it looked like later.

Snow child.

And back to the sky!

January was very…. January this year. We saw some plants, but it was wintery. Will feb be the same?

How was the first month of your year for plant observations?

January in Review

I’m really liking how this year has started out for the most part. I feel able to get things done, take time to relax, and settle into the goals I have for 2022. Not every minute has been great, and all months and years come with ups and downs, but so far so good. We gotten to explore some places that we like, but perhaps were neglecting at the end of last year. We’ve seen or checked in with family pretty often. We have started out getting doc appointments and other maintenance out of the way and are hopefully setting a precedent for wellness in the new year. Creative outlets have been a bit of a priority. And best of all Jan hasn’t flown by. I feel rooted in January and the new year.

This year I am working on a 365 Photo Project over at my insta as a way to post there, but not spend too much time on the app. I started taking the pics right at the beginning of the year, but am posted them behind the actual dates. So far I’m really returning to this style of project. It requires some thought and intention each day.

Are you starting any projects for the new year? Let’s dive into month two together.

2022 Goals

It feels like I should just cut and paste last years goals here. Not much movement was made on them and so they will remain mostly the same. There are subtle differences and andvancements to be tweaked and added.

Having to physically wrote them out seems important though. Perhaps goals were not accomplished, fell to the way side, or were over looked bc not enough time and energy was devoted to them. I did not cast my eye on to them in 2021, and this could be why they fell from my consciousness,

In 2022, I want to concentrate on slow living, sustainability, creativity, and forging a path that will lead me to a more tranquil and fulfilled life in the coming years. Societal norms and traditional means of income, working for others, expected gatherings, and timetables are some of the things that are no longer serving me. In my goals for the coming year, I hope to turn myself to a life more aligned with my priorities and pleasures. By writing and rewriting them, I hope to keep my goals foremost in mind and intentions.

Creation over Consumption
This is the goal I make every year and every year the definition changes ever so slightly. Creativity has many meanings in my world. Creative art, content making, living differently than most by living as self sufficiently as I can, creating a life that aligns and parallels my ideals and priorities. I want to live a more artistic life. Dare I say it? A more romantic life. To me, that means, consuming less media (yes, even booktube!), buying less, consuming less ideas of a “normal” life, and creating instead the life I seek.

Less electronic media (internet, news, instagram, booktube).
More art, both making and viewing.
More cooking to balance outside consumption.
More making (videos, blogs, photos, and thoughts. Although reading is consumption, I find that it falls more in this category: an inspiration).

Become more Self Sufficient
This is another multi facieted goal, needing more than just physical tasks to accomplish it. Not being able to love “normally” for nearly two years by of the global pandemic has not made me long for the “old days”, but made me anxious to usher in a new normal, a life full of art and romance and care for the larger world, but lived in a more susinct way. Truer to myself and my ideals.

Continue to grow towards zero waste and a plastic free lifestyle
Cut down on cheese, other factory and processed foods, and eating out.
Shop local, shop small.
Cook more, grow more food, preserve and less food waste.
Reduce clutter and use up.

Health
We’re not getting any younger! Regular checkups, better eating and exercise, and mental heath are going to become increasingly important this year. In youth we can coast through but it’s time to buckle down and create healthy routines.

Cat health.
Docs and regular check ups. Taking care of any issues we currently have.
Self healing techniques (including cooking more at home, walks for metal health, supplements and nutrition).
Exercise and stretching.

Home improvements
We love our house and we are happy that the pandemic has provided us more time to spend there. But after 7 years, there is maintenance that needs to get done, and improvements to be made. Not to mention all the projects we had meant to get to and didn’t (yes, our kitchen has been under construction for 5 years). And we have a few dream projects that can always linger on the list in hopes of one day coming true.

Finish kitchen.
Bathroom redo.
Wallpaper and paint.
New doors.
Organize and utilize the basement.
Maintenance on appliances.
Wood stove.
Piano.

Reading and Content
Although many things in my life and current goals are geared for staying off the computer, away from social media and out of the mainstream news, this blog, instagram and now my BookTube channel are important creative outlets for me. Reading is involved in all those things and an outlet for my mental health.

Read more (at least 75 books in 2022).
Consistent content on blog and booktube.
Find a way to post and view insta without app on phone. (I love to see my life recorded there, but the platform’s other functions no longer serve me).
More creative content.

Career
I don’t usually have a career section, but I plan to make a 3 year plan and my career is an important factor. Although, I love to work, my career is not fulfilling me the way that it used to. Partly that Is due to the pandemic, partly my age and disposition, and there are so many other factors as well! Part of my idea of a self sufficient life includes a job unbeholden to others, a way to raise up workers I see around me and create community. I don’t know how to accomplish this just yet, but 2022 is the year to figure it out.

3 year map and plan for life and work.
Budget.
Creative income (I’m not fully sure what this means or entails just yet, but I know I want some of my income to be generated by creative means).

That seems like quite a lot, but these are small steps to a larger path. I think by writing, seeing, rewriting, and working on reviewing these goals, I can make big strides towards a life more inline with myself.

What are you goals for 2022?

Best Nine 2021

I always really like to get my best nine on instagram each year. I’ve been doing it for the last 6 years. Ever since we moved to Asbury Park. This year I couldn’t get the bestnine website to work. I tried multiple times starting in december to get them to generate my grid. And it just wouldn’t do it. Luckily, 2021 was not a banner year for me and insta. Or unluckily. Either way, I sat down the other day, looked at every insta post I did and found my most viewed nine posts. And made my own grid.

2021

This grid has some interesting aspects but most notable is that this is the first grid with no cats.

In 2022, I hope to post more on instagram again. As of today, I haven’t actually posted at all this year, yet. But I have been taking photos every day. I’m trying to figure out a way to post on insta without actually going on insta. One idea I’m working on is a 365 photo project. Another is getting a insta feeding app so that I can schedule my posts but not actually be on the insta app.

Although I love insta in many ways, I find that is can be depressing to see certain real world events unfold there, and it’s a giant time suck when I get stuck in endless scrolling.

I’ll be excited to see what 2022 brings in pictures.

Here are all the past years:

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2021 Goals in Review

2021 was not the best year for completing my goals or for this blog. Those things are probably connnected, but perhaps not how you might think.

I’ve had this blog for many years and one of the reasons that I created it and keep it is that it is one of my greatest accountability partners. When I plan out goals here, and am able to refer back to them in this space, it helps me keep up with them in real life. If I have to check back in each month to keep updating, all the better.
The last few years have not really gone how anyone expected, but that wasn’t the only reason I’ve had trouble keeping up with this blog. Since starting my BookTube channel in Oct of 2020, I have devoted more and more time to that and had less time to invest in this space. I think I can find a balance there, and I hope to in 2022.

Another reason I have taken time away from this blog that directly ties in with my goal setting is that between 2020 and 2021 I experienced a long stretch of productivity burnout. It’s not that I was not productive during that time. I certainly was where my channel was concerned. But I was burnt out on the idea of always being productive, of goal setting, of measuring accompaniments in that way and constantly keeping up and keeping track. I really love goal setting and productivity techniques as a way to keep track and measure ones accomplishments, and intentions for the most part. But if it’s dragging one down, discouraging one, or simply not serving one, I know when it’s time to take a break.

That break for me, mostly included this work space as well as instagram and a few other areas. Some things that didn’t waver were my bullet journal, and of course, BookTube.

So why am I telling you all this here, in a post about 2021 goals? Mostly bc I haven’t looked at these goals in months, perhaps a year, and I wanted to record for you and for myself why that was. Usually I will check these goals often over the year, check in with you around mid year to adjust, see what needs to be tweaked or changed, then finish out my over all thoughts in this yearly post. This year I can’t even remember if I did a mid year check in. I could go back and look, but why bother?

Although, I firmly believe that one can start any goal at any time, I really love to check in in the beginning of, the middle, and the end of the year.

And here we are again at the start of the year! A perfect time to check on last year’s goals. Let us see what they were and how I did. Considering I haven’t checked, I’m very interested to see of there was progress made.

Creation Over Consumption
In 2020 I think my consumption has really changed but the other day I had a realization about how much I’m still consuming. Like suddenly I realized that watching youtube is just watching TV. This might seem like a no brainer, but I always thought of yourtube as teaching me something and therefore not mindless like TV. I also realized basically the same thing about reading. Now, obviously there are levels of consumption, from mindless to imporatnt. And I’m very happy that my consumption has leaned more to the imporant and edulcational this year. But in 2021, I want to make sure that my creation and creativity is at least more balanced, and more of a priorioty.

This first goal is one that I have had for many years. I think that I did not more well on this goal in. 2021 than in past years, but I also think I didn’t do worse than in most years.
I definitely still watched too much YouTube and perhaps even read a bit too much (I finished out the year having read 95 books). Reading is a little bit of a catch 22 in that I think it can help with creativity, but if that’s all you are doing, that’s not a help to your creativity. I did add effort to creative endeavors like BT and did a hand ful of projects over the years. Over all, not the worst, but no great leaps here.

Be More Self Sustainable
Double down on zero waste - I feel like in some ways I have gotten better at zero waste and in some ways more complacent. In 2021, I want to renew my pledge to the zero waste and low impact lifestyle in dramatic ways.
Live slow
Work more - Usually this goals is flipped but in 2021, I want to work more for MYSELF!
Forage more
Grow more food
Beach more
Spend less

Let see. This goals also wasn’t a true success. I didn’t advance my zero waste lifestyle nearly as much as I had wanted to. Here I feel like I’m in a holding pattern, circling just off where I would like to be and how much I would like to be progressing in this goal. I have had many discussions on what I can do to advance here, but very little tangible has come from them. I know I’m the kind of person that needs to think about things quite a bit before taking action, but neither much thought or action went into this in 2021. Now, that is not to say that I haven’t continued to live a more sustainable lifestyle than many people or even more so than in previous years. But I have reached a sort of plateau, and I would love to take the several next steps to become closer. To the goal I really want to achieve.
The way that I see this happening is to really focus on living slowly, hone in on what it means and how to do it. Create smart and concise goals within this goal to make it happen. I’m still working it all out, but one aspect is going to be doing a slow living series on my channel. One way that I kept up with zero waste in 2021 was to have a One More Month Of Zero Waste series on my booktube (my BT is not just about books!). Much like the series I do on this blog, we focused on one zero waste challenge each month and became more zero waste one month at a time. Over on YouTube, we rehashed and revisited a lot of the same challenges that we had already seen here. This both introduced the series to viewers, but also reinforced some things that we already knew but may have been slipping on.
I didn’t really work more in 2021, neither for myself nor for an outside job. The former needs attention, but I was happy with the amount of outside work I did in 2021. Part of a slow lifestyle, in my mind, is to work a job less, maintain it as a job you like that is low stress and deosn’t demand tooo much time or mental energy. Although one must make money to live in America, part of my slow lifestyle is to spend less, make less, and devote more time and energy to the real work of life, creativity, self employment, and enjoyment. Spend less was on the list of goals for last year. I can’t quantify if we actually did, but it felt like we did spend less in 2021.
Foraging and growing our own food kind of goes hand in hand. While we grew more food, and did find things we needed instead of buy them, I think. We could have been more intentional in the execution of this goal.

Health
Cook more
Cat health
Find doctors
Walk
Swim
Stretch/yoga
Health and supplements

I’m seeing a trend. Although we made some progress, we didn’t really focus on this goal. Plainly put, we did not cook more, focus on cat health, walk more, swim more or do yoga. We did all of these things a bit, but not more than the normal amount. We did do some work to find doctors, but that is ongoing and so doesn’t feel like any great accomplishment.

House Projects
Kitchen
Basement
Woodstove
Roof
Piano
Clean and reduce

Again, no real movement on the kitchen (a little tho!), basement, woodstove, or piano. But we did get a new roof, and we did work a very little bit on the cleaning, decluttering and reducing. I think we will see a big shift in these in the new year.

Travel and Explore - I’m not convinced there will be a lot of travel this year, but we can explore locally.
Irving in the car
Explore possible vaca home locales

This is a goal that saw NO movement. Zero.

Reading, Booktube, Blog
Read every day (65 books at least for the year)
Build my content creation and community
Be consistent with blogs and videos (schedule, schedule, schedule)
Be creative

We know I reached my reading goal, and along with that some goals I had for book tube. So I was able to buil my community in that way. I was pretty darn consistent over there. And fairly creative. But we also know I failed in all those aspects in this space. And the links between them were tenuous at best. Food for thought in 2022. I also hope that taking some time to concentrate here, now, is already helping.

How did you do on your 2021 goals? Did you keep up with and feel productive? Or were they pretty much dropped like mine? What are your plans for 2022?

Bc I use this blog to help dissect and evaluate my goals, it feels good to be back here. It feels solid and that it holds all the potential for the new year. I’ll need a few days to ruminate over what I’ve gone over here and will be back soon with some new goals for 2022.

Be I use this blog to help dissect and evaluate my goals, U

December Plant Update

December had unseasonably warm days, chilly days, rain and sun. It was a good month for plant and beach and animal observations. We stayed close to home for all of the month, pretty much; Never traveling further than our county and not venturing far, even then.

Two somber boys.

Many sun rises.

A Cooper’s Hawk?

A neighbor cat.

One very confused iris.

Beautiful but in entirely the wrong time and place.

Decorations and celebrations.

Fata Morgana - when ships appear to float on air rather than sea.

In December, my work sched was almost entirely early mornings, which allowed me to see many great sights, including a floating air ship and striking sunrises. In Jan, I might catch some sunsets from work.

We’ve alread had snow in the new month and the new year. What were you’re plant observations for December and the end of 2021? What are you looking forward to in 2022?

December in Review

Here we are reviewing and recapping the last month of 2021. Can you believe it?

December felt quite hectic. Even though ew don’t xmas shop, done do much for our celebrations, don’t really see anyone or do much that takes up a lot of time, this month felt full.

We seemed to work a lot of this month, but also had quite a bit of time off. Perhaps it was just that this year was abnormal, unusual, brisk and chaotic in many ways and that is why Dec felt that way as well.

We saw family, supported family at home (yes, I mean the cats), we got to explore some, but we mostly spent time at home when we could.

Over all this was a great year, all things considered. There was growth, there was change, there was routine and new adventure. There was also some missed opportunity to effect change, create and be creative. But we have another year to try again!

I hope you had as good a 2021 as you could have, but also that your 2022 is as good as you want it to be!

Happy new year!

November Plant Update

I might have mentioned, but in November, I was mostly at work, therefore my plant observations come mainly from there.

After a squall.

What a job!! I was tasked to repot 50 coffee plants this day!!

Coffee plants at the sea.

This oxalis loves the light, but looks beautiful in the evening as well.

Sunset at Asbury and Ocean.

A brief but vibrant collection of observations this month. What did November look like in your area?

October Plant Update

Plant observations for October were less about the plants and more about the critters and wide open spaces! We saw some watery spots, some late season butterflies, and some gorgeous skies!

Keyport, NJ

Farmingdale, NJ

Will never get over this color!

Monarch on the oak leaf hydrangeas.

Who can tell me something about this moth?

Another sleepy butterfly.

Morning commute.

And evening commute.

What was your October like?

September Plant Update

We spent a good amount of time on the beach in Sept. It’s local’s summer and we always try to get in some #septemberswims in. We travelled some this month, sometimes to different beaches!! We made some plant observations along the way.

Mushrooms with a view.

A different beach view.

And a closer look at that pier.

A good (but dead) horseshoe crab.

Cormorant at golden hour.

September flowers were wonderful!

Something left behind.

Sunset in Deal.

September was a pretty perfect month for getting out and about. The weather was mostly lovely and we took advantage of it. Where did you go this month? What did you observe?

August Plant Update

August was a great month for plant observations, but it was one of those months that not many photos were taken! It was a wet and rainy summer, but that meant that the moments of brightness and sun were even more lush and high contrast. We saw flowers, trees, so many weird new things in the garden. We saw animals and got to visit the sea.

I’m not sure what color our Japanese maple is supposed to be bc it seems to be constantly changing!

I love this sharp petalled flowers.

We spotted these huge peppers at a favorite community garden.

Keyport, NJ.

Asbury Park, NJ.

Our old man’s beard blew up in August!!

What were plants doing for you in August? Here, Aug is the end of Summer, but also the height of Summer. So we have many great plant observations!

September in Review

I think most years, September is my favorite month of the year. in 2021, I think it went too fast to really appreciate it. We worked, and enjoyed local’s Summer, we saw cats, and flowers, and traveled around our state. But the month flew by.

People (adults) always say that time moves faster as you get older. Now that I’m an adult, I find that to be true. Why is that and how can I make it stop?

Don’t get me wrong, Sept is still in the running to be my favorite month of 2021. We’ll see if another month can beat it. The weather will be hard to top.

Sept was a busy month, but we explored, read, rested, and hung out with cats. The beach was a major theme, but #SeptemeberSwims were at a minimum, unfortunately.

I often think of the Star Trek Next Gen movie where the planet they visit have a way to slow time, stop and live in a moment, and stretch the feeling and experience. In September, there were several moments I would have slowed and lived longer in.

Let’s find those moments in October.

August in Review

And just like that, August is behind us. It was a great month, but a month of changes and a month to anticipate change. Isn’t it always? We explored a bit both at home and a far (but not too afar). We saw #watchercats, went swimming, read, worked, and relaxed when we could.

1) A local landscape. 2) A confused flower. 3) A hidden neighbor. 4) Two good finds.

It’s been a wet summer and a hot summer. But we have gone around to a few places in NJ, sometimes driving around is the only want to escape the rain or heat. We also stayed home and kept the cats cool. Or thrown the windows open to let in the rain cooled breeze.

1) A bright spot on a dreary day. 2) Blep. 3) July’s read stack. 4) And another little friend.

The end of August heralds the end of Summer, but where I live, we look forward to Local’s Summer in September/October!

So let’s go!

Mad Cat Garden | July 2021

July in the garden fiiiiinaly saw us getting to harvest some good veggies!! We got tomatoes, peppers, blueberries, ground cherries, tomatillos, and more! At the end of the month we are deep into tomatoes season and so happy to be there. Bc we seed forage, some of the veggies we grew are a surprise! I think these weird round peppers we grew are actually jalepanos, but they are like xmas baubles!

Every morning, me and the cats look out on this view to start the day.

A non edible plant that grows naturally in our yard/garden are these “deadly” nightshade. Such a beautiful plant! But do not eat!!

Someone else has been enjoying the tomatoes as well!! By the jaw marks, I think this is a possum!! Whomever it is, they come around each night and take one bite out of all the low hanging tomatoes.

How is your garden growing?

On My Mind On Friday Morning

I really love these simple photographs of weeds and wildflowers.
I would really love to hang our laundry to dry outside, but we have too many birds that visit our yard!
There’s quite a few of these Summer veggie meals that I want to try!!
The Booker Prize long list was announced! There are several books I’m interested in reading. Have you read any of the novels on the long list?
We recently had a huge plant grow in our yard that looked like this Cow Parsley from the first link. Turns out it was a cousin on this plant: Deadly Hemlock!! Extremely poisonous! Needless to say, we left it alone!

Mad Cat Garden | June 2021

Yes, you read that right!! Here is a look at the JUNE garden! June was a big month in the garden and I wanted to make sure to highlight it. There are not a huge amount of pics, but even so, it’ll be good to look back to this month from future years. 2021 has been a strange year for the garden. Everything took a looong time to get started. June was the month that things really started going off.

Our blueberries put out it’s first small fruit in the beginning of June, but we didn’t get any ripe ones until the end of the month. Even then, it was only a few.

The peppers were growing but tomatoes were still very small with no fruit. The raspberries are taking over!! June saw us eating a lot of raspberries!! The lettuces were already bolting but we were able to eat some before they were gone completely. Why do earwigs love to live in the lettuce crevices? This is the first year we grew tomatillos and they were already quite big by June. We got our first really fruit early in July.

We have not mastered lettuce and it always bolts early and we only get to eat some leaves.

The herbs were growing well at this time. We were trying to grow pumpkins but weren’t having any luck.

We did get some squashes started this month, including the birdhouse gourds you see above. Unfortunately after these beautiful and delicate flowers, the gourds all withered on the vine. This year has been not at all what we expected, but we have learned a lot!

Are you growing a garden this year? How did your garden look in June?