Susan Palmer's Exquisite Now

Stuff gets done here

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  • The January Rule

    Susan Palmer 01/03/26

    If the sun shows up or the moon and stars appear, stop, drop everything and head outside. It could be weeks before you’ll see them again.

    Today, the forecast promised clouds and 95% chance of rain. But the clouds drifted apart in the late morning so we headed down to the river trail. We had a good hour of gorgeous light. A few blooms at the Eugene Rose Garden had not got the season memo.

    In the racing water of the Willamette River, we saw lesser scaups, common mergansers, mallards, Canada geese, and a lone great blue heron standing on an enormous log in the main channel. We figured he was digesting a big old bull frog caught in one of the side channels earlier. Or maybe he was just digging on the sun as the river swept by.

  • Squirrel gardening

    Or should I say gardening with a squirrel assist. I’m not the biggest fan of paper whites. Would never buy the bulbs despite their early winter bloom schedule. But apparently the local squirrels thought I ought to have some. About two months ago the pots on my patio had that disturbed look, a depression, with bits of soil splattered around outside them. I figured either the crows had dug around for some yummy grublike thing or squirrels had left a nut or two.

    Then green shoots appeared sometime in late November. And now I have a couple of paper whites looking fine, blooming with either great joy or great smugness. Now I don’t know that a squirrel did this, but I do know they love a tasty bulb in the fall. I didn’t know they might sequester them for future munching. Looks like these guys may be a forgotten delicacy.

    And maybe I like a paper white or two better than I thought I did. Maybe it’s nice that somebody else did the work.

  • Don’t dis the resolution

    geneva botanical garden

    Look, I’m naturally optimistic on this, but also aligned with the science. That’s s why I engage every year in setting a goal (or two or four). Behavioral science researchers include new year resolutions under the category of the “fresh start effect” as part of a suite of ways to make meaningful changes. Using time markers like the beginning of the year to shift momentum and exchange old patterns for new ones can be an effective strategy, they say.

    I’ve had successes as well as failures in the realm of making resolutions. What I’ve learned is that the fresh start feeling ebbs over time and needs buttressing with additional tactics to maintain the initial momentum. But finishing requires starting, obviously. Might as well start with a tail wind.

    Besides being optimistic, I’m naturally slothful. The part of my brain that wants to achieve often dukes it out with the part aligned with the fine Italian sentiment dolce far niente (how sweet to do nothing).

    That other sweetness, that taste of accomplishing a goal, is also pretty yummy.