Garden inspiration, klutz-proofing a white couch, and a truly great NYC chocolate shop
plus ice formations on a Japanese lake and foraged mushrooms in the Alps
My week is best described by a frantic text I sent to a group chat: "Help! I can’t keep up with all.the.messages on all.the.platforms!" The sympathetic responses were instant - between Slack, Teams, Signal, WhatsApp, iMessage, personal emails, work emails (that aren’t Slack or Teams 🫠), school emails, sports communications apps, and (dreaded) voicemails - the consensus is we are all losing our minds. Just hearing I wasn’t alone helped a lot (maybe the real joy of a good group chat).
Reading Notes
Besides fantasizing about turning off the wifi and reactivating our rotary phone, I did read some great articles this week. This one (gift link) describes the Miwatari, a winter phenomenon on Japan's Lake Suwa where freezing temperatures create jagged ridges of ice across the lake's surface. While the result of thermal contraction and expansion of ice, this occurrence has been recorded since 1443 and holds spiritual significance for local residents who once viewed it as proof of a passing Shinto god. Climate change has dramatically altered this centuries-old pattern, with the lake failing to freeze for seven consecutive winters—an unprecedented gap in the 580-year archive.
I was gripped by this article (gift link) on a mysterious cluster of Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS) in a tiny town in the French Alps - 10 times higher than expected. After decades of sleuthing, neurologist Emmeline Lagrange discovered a surprising potential culprit: foraged mushrooms! When metabolized, the mushroom's toxin, gyromitrin, may cause DNA damage similar to another ALS outbreak in Guam linked to tortillas made from toxic seeds. Though the connection wasn't definitively proven, no further cases of ALS have been diagnosed since a warming climate has reduced false morel growth in the region.
Both articles touch on ways humans made (and continue to make) sense of the world (my catnip, always!). Imagine each priest dutifully recording the overnight appearance of ice formations over the course of 580 years, not knowing that one day, the record would be helpful for scientists. I highly recommend reading the entire ALS/mushroom article - I was particularly moved by the tenacity of the primary doctor and the triumph of science in solving this mystery (and also illuminating why ALS, a predominately genetic disease, sometimes shows up in people with no genetic markers for it). Both stories also reveal how human observation often unexpectedly contributes to scientific understanding years or even generations later. The continuity of human curiosity across time never ceases to move me.
This morning, as I was paging through The Garden Conservancy catalog, the photograph above and this quote caught my eye: "Cultivation is just another word for commitment. You think you are just pulling weeds, but what you are really doing is writing a love letter to your patch of earth." What a beautiful sentiment that gets to the heart of the joy of gardening.
The throughline here is about nature, yes, but also about commitment, about perseverance (recording the visits of an unseen god, searching for an answer to why patients are ill, pulling weeds for 40 years in the pursuit of beauty) that feels particularly urgent in our distracted age. Each article showcases a form of witness—carefully documenting changes in a lake, meticulously tracking patterns of an illness, or tending to the same patch of earth for decades. If that isn't motivating, I don't know what is.
NB: If you aren't already a member, I highly recommend joining The Garden Conservancy, one of my favorite non-profits that preserves gardens and organizes local garden tours nationwide. On Thursday, May 22, 2025, at 2 PM, The Garden Conservancy is hosting a virtual program on Jill Nooney's garden!
Design Notes
This past Monday, Ben and I took the train into NYC on his last day of spring break. We ate at Pain Quotidien, where, for a decade, I spent countless hours writing in between school drop-offs and pick-ups. I craved their chia seed muffin during both pregnancies and post-partum periods - so needless to say, it was a treat to be back, even for a single meal. Despite Ben's initial reservations, we split an avocado toast, a side of smoked salmon, and a pear tart with an iced americano for me. Bliss!
A. We then walked to Barnes & Noble and bought the Mercy Watson Boxed Set. I had no idea Ben read this series at school, and he has been thrilled to have his own copy at home.
B. I couldn't resist the siren's song of Flow: A Book for Paper Lovers, which is part magazine, part old-school stationery store, and part cool art project.
C. What happened next was a true small joy and an example of my favorite sort of NYC serendipity. As we walked up 5th Avenue to the Nintendo store, Ben noticed a six-foot model of the Statue of Liberty made out of chocolate in the window of Laderach Chocolates. It was raining, and I saw a friendly-looking salesperson with a groaning tray of samples. Ben and I are chocolate obsessives, so we went in. At the first taste of his sample, Ben turned to me with a look of absolute amazement. Swiss chocolate is legit. We then had a nice chat with the woman behind the register, who informed Ben when he asked that the chocolate Statue of Liberty weighed a whopping 350 lbs and was made personally by the grandson of the founder. Needless to say, we'll be back on our next visit.
D. After we bought some chocolate for the ride home, I mean, for the rest of our family, we passed a new-to-me location of McNally Jackson Books near Rockefeller Center, where I purchased Chivalry and Courtesy: Medieval Manners for a Modern World. We ended the day with a lightning-fast run through The Metropolitan Museum - where a Viking sword from the 10th century was a true highlight!
Found Objects
E. I have a friend who always unearths the most interesting and useful finds, and this week, she sent me a link to this Yoto Card Organizer. If you are a Yoto family, you will instantly understand the appeal (the cards end up everywhere!).
F. I have a weakness for enamel pins (they're so tiny! So funny! So inexpensive!) but never end up wearing them, so these magnets that convert pins into something you can put on your fridge seemed truly smart!
G. After spilling coffee on my white sofa for the third time in as many weeks (and having soaked my messes out with Oxi-clean), I caved and bought this gingham custom sofa cushion to protect against my klutziness. I can remove it for guests—or not! Dowdy or practical magic? Only time will tell!
H. My favorite coffee cups are from Crate and Barrel - I love the thin lip and that they are not too big for my petite hands!
Our dinner, this black bean sweet potato chili, is almost ready- a recommendation from the same group chat that I texted in a panic about my inbox overwhelm. Here's my friends’ best advice and what I'm experimenting with to regain (some) sanity:
blocking out (repeating) calendar time slots to respond to emails and texts (and mostly not responding until those times) - adapted from Heidi Fiedler!
using Gmail filters to ruthlessly "skip the mailbox" for anything that routinely distracts me or waylays me in the middle of work emails
unsubscribing from unnecessary emails and text messages
setting calendar reminders for life admin like pharmacy refills, giving heartworm medication to our dog, car maintenance and house maintenance (like remembering to calling the septic folks every two years!)
leaving my phone to charge in the kitchen overnight (this is a big one for me!!) I’m giving it a try tonight after literally ignoring this sort of advice for a decade. Who says people can’t change?!
It’s an uphill battle, and I’m not aiming for perfection here (I'm not even sure what that would look like, honestly). I'd love to hear how you're tackling digital overload and distraction.
Sunday Daily Dose of Green
Bonus Notes - Paid Subscriber Section
I often have a few finds that don't fit into the main image (my favorite part of the newsletter and the hardest to get 'right') or the overall flow. For the next couple of newsletters, I'm going to experiment with putting a few bonus finds here for subscribers as a tiny thank-you.
These neon treasures didn't make the main cut, but they're a delight!
A. Neon wall hook!
B. Neon sandals!
C. Neon socks and more neon socks!
I have become a ruthless unsubscriber. I have my newsletters that I genuinely look forward to receiving…everything else gets an unsubscribe. It started out at sitting down and taking 20 minutes to unsubscribe from all of the emails I had gotten over the last week, then it whittled down to the point that whenever I get the odd marketing or campaign email, I unsubscribe immediately. My inbox has never been so calming. Now I just see the things I need/want to see. (it’s also cut down on the pull to buy things on the internet…) Last week I took it a step further and removed the email app from my phone. I can still get to it if I need to, but it is no longer staring me in the face when I open my phone. I feel so much more patient…with myself and my life, and with others. We’ll get to it when we get to it, and in almost all cases, the world will not end if I do not respond to an email for a few days…someone needs me, they can always call :)
Thanks for linking! When I read your opening paragraph, I was nodding. The messages are coming from WAY too many places, and just sorting out what's important and what's not takes energy. Despite all appearances, I have to believe we are not on this planet to answer messages!