Hot!
Monday
Although, according to my sister, it should be mostly raining through June here in Western Oregon, today is a wonderfully, beautifully hot, summery day.
I have discovered in the past few days that my energy levels for outside work have dwindled a lot more than I realized. Yesterday I was watering the garden pots and nearly passed out before I was finished. I came in before I passed out, but, even though I wasn’t overheated, I was totally exhausted for the rest of the evening. I can totally empathize with my mom as I never did before. I’m hoping the back strengthening exercises, along with more outside walking will help. Alas! it didn’t help my mom, though she was in her 80’s and 90s and was still seriously gardening, and chopping & splitting wood in her early 70s. My sister is convinced it’s the non exacerbated version of the rare, but inherited, muscular dystrophy she has. I don’t know, and frankly, since there nothing to be done for it, I don’t need to know. If she can still be walking five years after they said she’d be wheelchair bound, I can learn to deal with fatigue. (And today the work 40/rest 20 plan is working, though the lack of time sense of ADD doesn’t help.)
After that twenty minute break I moved on to putting together my plant stand for the kitchen.
(Don’t pay too close attention to the lack of housekeeping.) My sister put together one that’s on the other side of this space before deciding they weren’t what she wanted, but she couldn’t return them. They turned out to be both left sides, too, but I just put this one together differently. Only the first shelf at the bottom came out differently and the metal frame curves more to the fight than the base. Pictures in the instructions showed a left and a right one that matched exactly, but the packages were not labeled left or right. Anyway, it’s not particularly noticeable. They replaced larger shelves that tended to collect “stuff.” Now that stuff will need to be put away properly–hopefully before sitting on the dining table for too long. Tomorrow I’ll put away what’s still there (out of the picture).
Tuesday
Not as hot today. Actually, if not staying directly in the sun, it’s quite lovely.
I was having lovely dreams of my granddaughters and overslept. Normally that’s not a big deal, but I woke up at about the time I should have been arriving at the chiropractor. Fortunately, I’d taken my shower last night. I called the office and told them I was running late and scrambled to get there. I arrived about fifteen minutes late — at my MD’s office!!! As a result was about twenty-five to thirty minutes late to the Chiropractor. Auto pilot doesn’t really work well for me. At least Dr R wasn’t too busy today and was able to take me in even as late as I was. The MD might not have been able to take me being that late. We’re so short of MDs that they’re always booked up.
Rushing around like that always leaves me unsettled for the rest of the day. I have things to do, but it seems harder to get back into my normal rhythm. That hasn’t always been like that. I never used to become so discombobulated by a small hiccup in my plans.
The Garden
My cheap Walmart asparagus does not seem to have survived. I will keep watering it, but I don’t expect anything.
My blueberries need both more sun and more water. I will move those pots to the driveway. And hope I water them more often.
WP won’t let me put two photos in one text & media box!! Arrrg!!!! It also enlarged my thumbnails (which I then deleted).
Since the lawn guys cut back my rosebushes, I can now see that we have two wild blackberry bushes among them. They need to be dug up, so I think I will pot them and see if they will grow in pots. The berries are delicious, but they grow too wild in the back border. There’s another one down in the wall (center pic) that holds up my back yard. If I can pull it out, I’ll pot that one, too. Otherwise I’ll have to spray it dead. I don’t want roots breaking the wall!
Maple trees, both large leaf yellow and Japanese red leaf, are prolific breeders. If our yard is ever abandoned, it won’t take long for them, along with the St. John’s wart, ivy, some of the needle evergreens and the laurel, to take over!
The Italian arum is a weed here in Oregon that has taken over this front flower bed. I need to get it pulled out since the leaves are wilting now, anyway. But, weed or not, I do like that it greens up the bed with the first daffodils and I also like the flowers (as long as they don’t go to seed).
And since WP is being porky for me today, not letting me do what I want to do, I’m done for today.
(pics will open on new pages in larger sizes)