In my own little corner...

Too Much of a Good Thing Can Be...

..PAINFUL!

 

As I told my massage therapist this morning, it seemed like a good idea at the time!  LOL

See, I knew that we had this beautiful weekend of wonderful cooler weather. I also knew that I hadn't done any yard work in FOREVER due to our yucky hot weather. And I knew that my massage therapist could see me around mid-morning today.

Aha! Thinks I yesterday, after scheduling the massage appointment. To get the most massage benefit from my hard-earned dollars, I should take my free time this evening and whack those weeds into control with my trusty Husqui (Husqvarna - yes, I name my power tools. Your point is?).

I think I lasted an hour - but the weeds near the picky neighbor's fence line look better, the weeds in front of the mailbox are gone, the weeds next to the house are no more, the meter-reader will be able to get to the meter to read it, and the eventual monarch waystation looks more like a flowerbed and less like a totally neglected raised bed.

I limped my way into the house, doing my usual "drop the clothes in the washer on the way in, and run for the shower to forestall poison ivy" dash, and realized when I came out of the shower that it hurt to walk. Seems I bent my knee some direction it's not supposed to go while I was weed-whacking.  Gotta love the healing powers of an ice pack.

This morning, as I mentioned earlier, I took advantage of the cool temps to deadhead 2 of my 18-24 butterfly bushes -- I try to keep the ones by the mailbox looking presentable (it also helps keep the mailbox accessible by the letter carrier, which is always a good thing).

My short attention span decreed I shift to another yard job, so I grabbed the wheelbarrow and the pitchfork, and moved 3-5 barrow-fulls of wood chips from the big pile behind my driveway to the weedy portion of my front yard oval. As I was "wheeling my barrow through streets broad and narrow," to quote an old, old song, I finally realized where I could transplant one of the near-dead azaleas I bought last fall and over-wintered in a container.  It's a fine healthy plant now, and I have just the spot for it.

All I needed to do was to de-turf the Zoysia from that spot, dig a hole, amend the soil, etc.

Well, I got it de-turfed, at least.  That's about the time my back started screaming at me. I ignored it until I was done de-turfing, then limped back into the house for another "drop the clothes in the washer on the way in, and run for the shower to forestall poison ivy" dash (in case I had brushed up against any while deadheading/minor weed-pulling/digging/moving wood chips -- I am *paranoid* about PI, in case you couldn't tell).

I kept trying to tell my massage therapist that yard work is relaxing and restorative for me -- every time I did, she would laugh, because my body apparently disagrees.  When she was done laughing, she taught me some stretches I could do before and after yard work to help my body handle it better, and told me I had done enough yard work for one weekend.

I had no problem agreeing with her on that, but there are still over a dozen buddleias to deadhead, and an azalea hole to dig. Guess I'll do it a little bit at a time, instead of trying to do it all at once, especially since Dorothy is out of town next weekend.

Feels like Fall...

It's a wonderful feeling, even if it's not reality yet, here in the HOTlanta area.  But for the last week, thanks to Tropical Depression Lee, we've had wonderfully cool temps and beautiful days.

We've been having the kind of days that just BEG you to spend time in the yard, remembering the feel of the healthy Zoysia beneath your feet, the fragrance of the buddleia blossoms as you deadhead them, the buzz of the bees who resent your coming so near their feeding ground as they search for the best buddleia nectar.

And I've spend most of every day in the house glued to the computer.  I think today I'll treat myself to yard time.   I have some azaleas in containers that would love to be in the ground. I have some weeds that dearly need to be whacked (and some others that need to be sprayed, much as I hate using chemicals in the yard).

There's also woodchips begging to be spread, a new tree to be planned and prepped for...

And all of  this is life-giving, for me. Refreshing & restorative, centering and grounding me, reminding me that life moves in cycles like the seasons, and that what looks dead is often just dormant, awaiting the proper concatenation of circumstances to spring back to life and amaze me with its beauty (and boy, do I hope that's true of my heat-stressed red buckeye).