Yesterday was a Great Productive Day!

Tuesday dawned in brilliance. I arose keen to get out to work in the garden. By 8:30 I was out cleaning up the courtyard and feeling very good about my renewed enthusiasm for gardening. However, my left arm is really fading and my right one is not far behind. My left arm shakes like mad and the right on is just weak. Still, I was able to make good progress and get off to a great start to the day.

Once the courtyard was all edged and swept, Her Highness and I went for our first walk of the day. And it was great because the day, plus the forecast (see below) gave me the feeling that we are emerging from the dark and damp to true Summer weather. These current temperatures are ideal; it is not sweat inducing to work all day. I love this weather!  

When we came home, I mowed the backyard lawns. It exhausted me, just pushing around a mower. Mowing makes me aware of how big half of an acre is. I’m glad I don’t have more land. Work, rest and dry off, repeat. It takes a good two hours to mow all the lawns (with short rests), and another hour to clean up the cuttings, dog poop and fallen branches.

Once the sun was hitting the front garden, I finished weeding it. It’s the garden that I began cleaning up on Monday. I needed a break from the noise and the mowing, so pulling the last of the weeds in the front garden and tilling it gave me a nice break before I finished mowing the shed lawn and edible garden. Then, for a break and a treat, I went to pharmacy to pick up a prescription and order another. And then, hooray (!), I went nursery to get a nice flowering tree for the front yard.

I got a Flame Maple that burns a bright, vibrant red in Fall. It will bring welcome colour to my yard in Autumn. Planting it, of course, was brutal because I have to bore through sandstone, pounding it with a heavy metal pry bar. But it’s in and I was done for the day with that task finished.

At 4:00 I zoomed with Cathy before having an end-of-day spa before dinner and the couch. It feels so fine to relax in the evening after a long day of labour. Today I’m going to continue and I’m also going to see if the other nursery has a Laburnum. I want another one; this one for the front yard.

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I awoke with grand enthusiasm for the day and for the work I would do in the yard, but I was disappointed to awaken to dark and cloudy skies. This was not predicted. And last night, Sheba was bleeding on my bed from one foot. She’s very down this morning. I bound her foot and we won’t walk today.

I hope to get more mowing done before it rains. It looks like rain is coming. And this afternoon a chap is coming to see the trees I want taken down. He’ll give me an estimate, but will he turn up? I’ve had a lot of trouble finding someone willing to do the job. And I’ll do some reading. I’m reading my first Martin Walker novel (Inspector Bruno).