My husband and I spent the last two weeks catching up on all the projects we've put off the past year or so. Ok, not true. We didn't catch up on all of them....but we put a good dent into them.
My favorite has been the yard. I love gardening, but due to an accident nearly 5 years ago, I was unable to do much for quite a long while. I hurt my lower back and tailbone in a skimboarding mishap. Can you imagine a banana peel under my feet? yep, that's the image...straight up, then slam! down on my butt on hard, wet sand. I was hurt, but laughing so hard, my friends didn't know quite what to do when I couldn't get up right away....ah, sweet memories. I spent the rest of that vacation sitting on an inflatable tube float my favorite child Alex thought would be funny to give me. It was perfect actually, because I was NOT giving up my beach week. But, I digress. After 3 years of yoga and finally getting back to the gym with the best personal trainer in existence (yes, Keith, that's you) I am now as close to normal as I'll get.
Want another visual? Four years ago, I was doing yard work and at that time, if I bent down for more than about 10 minutes, I would "freeze." Nope, no warning, I'd just try getting up and I'd be stuck. Now picture me planting flowers IN MY FRONT YARD, no less, and finding out for the first time I couldn't get up. First I panicked. Then I figured I couldn't just sit there all day, so I rolled. Laid down on my side, rolled around to get to a place with leverage, then hoisted myself up onto stiff feet and hips that didn't wish to move. I only prayed no neighbor was watching or would drive by - I had to look like a crazy woman, rolling in the grass and mulch. I'd get to the porch, lie on my back until everything relaxed, and duh, do it again. ahhh, MORE sweet memories.
Back to the point - now that I can move again, I decided to remake the front flower beds. Keith, aforementioned personal trainer, helped me dig up and compost the bed last fall. Oh, you thought this was going to be all words, blah, blah, blah. Nope...here come the pics. Befores and afters.
This is the front bed after everything but a few trees and shrubs were taken out. I used to have my own version of an English garden - a mass of crazy plantings, basically. This has been tilled with organic compost/topsoil and fertilizer. Same view, with the new plantings mixed in with plants saved and replanted. Plus new stepping stones.
While I'm thinking of it..this blog likes to move my words and pics around....I tell it where I want it, but once posted, it takes on a life of its own. My apologies for the vast amount of space between some lines and photos.
Ready for work. 
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and today...after a week of mulching and adding in zinnias and million bells and sweet potato vine to take over once the pansies die back.
What will I do today? After posting this, I'm headed back to the studio. I set up my palette this morning. It's time to paint.
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