Spring Equinox 2014.
We had some beautiful days and then some more snow/sleet/yuck. The snow is melting, but it has a long way to go yet. The last of the snow can leave the gardens here at any time between early March and late April. Obviously this will not be one of those early springs when we can get a leisurely head start. Too bad, I love it when I can spend a few weeks just poking around without hurrying. Remind self to be grateful we are not in drought-ridden California.
We do have signs of spring.
Poor robin. The dramatic pile of snow is what slid off the roof. I love that roof.
As reported I lost my first batch of seedlings due to my own stupidity. That put a damper on the early enthousiasm.
But a worse damper is coming from my body.
My injured right knee (tibial plateau fracture in July 2012) has been acting up, after being fine for a year. Last year it allowed me to do absolutely everything I felt like doing, including feats of extreme digging. I walked up and down the hill between dwelling and garden and barn, I hauled what needed to be hauled, I had no pain, was full of energy and had a blast. Hips might balk once in a while but a visit to our wonderful chiropractor took care of that. Aging? Ha! Not yet! Scott Nearing didn't slow down till he was almost a hundred, right? Or so we thought till this week.
The path to the greenhouse is a half-thawed out trail through snow that is still halfway to my knees. That is the worst possible thing to walk on, even when you are careful. You take a few steps and without warning your foot slips off the trail into the soft mush to the side of it. Needless to say this is hard on the knees. It happened a few times yesterday when I took the compost to the barn through a different route. I thought I had gotten away with it, but on the way home from a walk, on the easy flat part just below our own land, I experienced a sudden sharp pain just below the knee cap and felt half crippled for the rest of the day and half of the next.
The plan had been to start some more seeds but it took me too long to move around. I got the planter prepared, that's all. This was one of the days when the thought of a cute house in the village with a small but perfect garden starts to be appealing.
I dug up some of the physiotherapy exercises I never did a lot of. The knee responded with gratitude. Stronger muscles help to keep the knee in place. I should have called this post "When in doubt, follow instructions, part 2".
Post script.
I had almost forgotten about that. The knee as well as the rest of the body has been behaving perfectly after a few exercises. I am so grateful to the good trusty old beast!
We do have signs of spring.
But a worse damper is coming from my body.
My injured right knee (tibial plateau fracture in July 2012) has been acting up, after being fine for a year. Last year it allowed me to do absolutely everything I felt like doing, including feats of extreme digging. I walked up and down the hill between dwelling and garden and barn, I hauled what needed to be hauled, I had no pain, was full of energy and had a blast. Hips might balk once in a while but a visit to our wonderful chiropractor took care of that. Aging? Ha! Not yet! Scott Nearing didn't slow down till he was almost a hundred, right? Or so we thought till this week.
The plan had been to start some more seeds but it took me too long to move around. I got the planter prepared, that's all. This was one of the days when the thought of a cute house in the village with a small but perfect garden starts to be appealing.
I dug up some of the physiotherapy exercises I never did a lot of. The knee responded with gratitude. Stronger muscles help to keep the knee in place. I should have called this post "When in doubt, follow instructions, part 2".
Post script.
I had almost forgotten about that. The knee as well as the rest of the body has been behaving perfectly after a few exercises. I am so grateful to the good trusty old beast!
Oh, the wonder that exercise can do for us! I was reading along this post, thinking that maybe I should suggest that you ask your orthpod to send you back to the PT for some assessment and teaching of the exercises that might help.....and BOOM! There you have it, dig up the previous sheets of exercises, and {angels unleash a chorus] you are better! Keep them up! Crazy pains come along, we fear the worst, and the PT does some testing moves that show such oddities as "tight iliotibial bands" or whatever. They teach the right exercises and the right way to do them. Ya gotta love that!
ReplyDeleteSpring is here, a bit cool, but sunny for a couple of days, so I'm cleaning up the WMD's - er, tools and machines, and adding more green layers to the garden beds to be. Cardboard supplies are plentiful. And against all odds, I mailed off a few clods of soil to be analyzed, with a request for amending advice as well. I bet it's pretty puny stuff, because I found so few earthworms as I dug out the samples. At least it didn't stink, eh?
How admirable you are doing the soil testing thing! I read the posts on Steve Solomon's list sometimes and it drives me nuts.
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