This was the report when I was three-quarters of the way through this 75x75 project, around April 20:
"It's true that I have almost a quarter of the year left before my 75th birthday, and it's true that on March 20 the items on my 75 x 75 list were 78.4% accomplished, so I should be feeling pretty good about things.
"But 'how to lie with statistics.' There is reason to forestall complacency!
"The problem is in the nature of what I have left. Many of the tasks already fulfilled were easy ones (eat 75 blueberries for breakfast; sew something with 75 stitches; hike to 7500-foot altitude) or easily accomplished with diligent attention (hug 75 trees, jump rope 75 times for 75 days, see and identify 75 fauna). Some of the things I've marked as 'done' are difficult ones I knew I would need time to do: memorize 'hello, what's your name, good-bye' in 75 languages, memorize a 75-line poem, make 75 pendants with wood-burned words; pick up 75 pieces of trash on my road.
"What I have left are mostly items that depend on the season (pick 75 wildflowers and make an arrangement for every room in your house; identify 75 botanical things on one hike) or ongoing items that I need to finish. That's where the slight nudge of panic comes in. I have to read 25 more books and magazines, for instance, before July 20. That would be six books a month, or slightly more than one a week. Since March 20 I have read one New Yorker and four books, so I'm doing pretty well this week, but I have to keep alert if I'm going to finish this item. I'm slightly ahead on writing poems of 75 words each. I only have twelve more to write. Four a month should be doable.
"I've been waiting for good weather and wildflower season to do more on 'identify and draw 75 botanical species on your land,' but I think I had better get to it."
After that assessment, I had a bigger project to take care of: I got married on May 18, and there were many details to tend to. It was a splendid wedding (see the last two posts on dianacoogle.blogspot.com for a report), and, with the honeymoon over, I have turned my attention back to the 75s project.
Now that the weather is good, I have started on the last project mentioned above: identifying and drawing 75 botanical species on my land. The little penciled sketches aren't artistically good (I'm no artist), but when I page through the beautiful little leather book of blank pages Louise Nicholson, who suggested this item, gave me, I can see the botanical differences, and each drawing reminds me of the botanical diversity on my land.
The best thing about doing this item is that it accomplishes what Louise wrote in her inscription in the book: "Enjoy your moments in nature this coming year." This morning, I sat on a rock to draw a cat's ear and an ookow, then moved to another spot to draw the Japanese maple sapling that is an offspring of the Japanese maple I and my siblings gave my mother one Mother's Day and that grew into one of the most beautiful trees on our sloping front lawn. The birds were singing. A slight breeze was blowing. The sky was blue – all the clichés of spring. I was quiet and concentrated on my work, but my senses were open to the whole great big beautiful world of nature around me. I have drawn 28 species so far. Tomorrow I'll go in a different direction and pick up more species.
Looking at my rate of reading for the past year, I decided to set aside Les Misérables and like-sized books and take up young adult novels instead. The result was to read some excellent books: Sherman Alexi's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian; Judy Blume's Forever; Monica Hesse's Girl in the Blue Coat, which takes place in Nazi-occupied Holland; and Laura Amy Schlitz's The Hired Girl, a clever take on Jane Eyre. By moving into young adult literature, I have moved rapidly towards finishing this item, with 69 books and magazines already read.
The wedding itself was good for some 75s items. I was able to talk to a lot of strangers, and finished that item. Some interactions were such that I came away saying, "That's why I don't talk to strangers," but others were wonderful moments of brief sharing, which I enjoyed. Thanks to my sister Sharon for pushing me to do that item. The wedding and the honeymoon helped me finish the 75 wines item (suggested by Jim Sartorio) and the suggestion, from Sharon and from Teya Jacoby, to go to 75 new places. I did several hikes on my honeymoon, bringing the total of hikes since July 20 to 68, so I will easily finish that item. I had a brunch at my house for all members of Mike's family and mine who were able to come to the wedding (about 30 people), so I worked to finish the books of 75s: photographs of hugging 75 trees; leaves of 75 different trees; 
75 favorite photographs; accomplishments of 75 people over the age of 75; 75 poems about aging; photographs of 75 favorite hikes. I had on a shelf but did not wear my crown made with 75 dried flowers.
Although I didn't write any poems about the wedding, I did write a series of poems about the honeymoon (each 75 lines), so I only have to write two more poems to fulfill that item!
The next push will be the 75-mile hike, which Mike and I will begin next week. We had thought we would go to the Sierra Nevada – Yosemite, maybe, or Emigrant Wilderness Area or Lake Tahoe – but this is a late snow year, and we couldn't find 75 miles we could hike without running into snow. What we needed was a long, low-elevation hike, and the perfect one is right here in Southern Oregon: the Rogue River Trail. It's 40 miles from its beginning at Graves Creek to its end at the Illahe Lodge. We'll camp along the way but spend the night and resupply at Illahe Lodge and start back up the trail the next day. We'll go at a leisurely pace, taking ten days for the whole trip, and in the end I will have hiked five miles beyond the requisite 75. This won't be the first of the 75x75 items I've roped Mike into doing with me, but it's one of the best.
While I'm on the trail, I'll see if I can identify 75 species on one hike and fulfill that item, too.
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