Tuesday and Wednesday were more "days in the fields". I worked outside all afternoon on Tuesday: at least 7 hours with one 1/2 an hour break. ::No, I am not a masochist, I just get like that. I work til I drop and don't think about eating or anything else:: I cleaned out a flower bed out front that was full of 3 foot tall grass...some annoying clumping grass that required my digging it out with a long handled shovel. It actually looks like a garden now instead of part of an abandoned lot. I planted two yellow roses in the same bed ::that I got inexpensively from Wal Mart:: I also planted a red rose in each of the driveway beds. Four roses for $15! WOOT! I am SO glad the weather has been amenable to working outside and not dying of heat stroke. For the most part th
e temps have been in the low 80s with low humidity. YES! Humidity is the bane of summer in Maryland and I think the only ones that enjoy the nastiness of our humid summers are the mosquitoes. ::and by the by, Asian Tiger Mosquitoes are from the pit of hell. I don't care what anyone says. They. Are. Evil. And. Pointless::After all, they all came from the Orient. Must feel like old-home week to them. Its supposed to get HOT today. Wah. I just hope the humidity stays low though. Wednesday when I stopped weeding, cleaning and planting, I stood up, took of my gloves and.....Ouuuuccchhh. Sciatica is a damned nuisance. Having arthritis in my back is a damned nuisance. Two many car accidents, horse-back riding falls, and general mishaps over my41 years .Myeh. To exacerbate the damage to my spine in the distant past, this winter I took one step on the stairs and just .
..went down. Fell. Didn't walk down the steps but made it to the bottom. I guess I mis-stepped because one moment I was upright and then suddenly I was on my arse and sliding down the 17 steps on my back. I hit the bottom and was laughing. Face it, it is kind of funny to slide down a staircase on your arse. Then I stopped laughing because I realized mannn I was going to be hurting from this. I got up...stretched. Went and sat down at the computer. 20 minutes later I could not get up. My muscles in my back had locked up so tight that I couldn't move. I went to my dr two days later to get a script for an x-ray because I was afraid I had fractured something in my spine. Thankfully I hadn't, but when he called me back he said "Well you didn't fracture anything but there are changes since you last x-rays. You have arthritis at Cervical this and Thoracic that and Lumbar those." Oh good night. No wonder my back aches all the time! So, I started taking more of my supplements that are good for tendons and joints. The Omega acids in Evening Primrose Oil (EPO), Flax Seed and Fish Oil are not only natural anti-inflammatory, but the GLA in the EPO is a pre-builder for the body for repairing damaged joints. EPO is AMAZING stuff. It isn't the EPO itself that affects the body but the fact that the GLA gives the body the nutrition it needs to build serotonin receptors, rebuild joints, fight allergic reactions and even can help with ADD and ADHD symptoms. Read up on it. I believe EVERY WOMAN should be taking this without fail. I started taking this when my daughter was about 6 months old when I was having post-partum. It is safe to take when nursing or pregnant *always talk to your OB!*. I will do a whole post on EPO one day but seriously, if you suffer depression and want something natural, safe and gentle to help, try this. We often suffer disease or dysfunction because we do not get the nutrition we need for the body to function properly. Targeting the body with supplements that will give it what it needs to function properly is THE WAY to go, rather than treating symptoms that just mask disease and dysfunction. Oh boy could I go off on that subject, but again that is a whole series of blogs in and of itself.I also take Boswellia (Frankincense), Valerian and/or Bromelain for my back (comes from
pineapple). Boswellia is a natural anti-inflammatory. Valerian is a natural muscle relaxant and sleep aid. Not all at once and not all the time. They are part of my "arsenal". 
D Also in the options list is Arnica rub and homeopathic grains. And let's not forget daily supplements of calcium citrate, potassium and magnesium. Its been proven that the muscles don't function properly without these three minerals, and that people with heart disease often have an imbalance in these. Also I am of that age. Feh. lol The powers that be want us gals to supplement calcium to prevent osteoporosis. OK...I can do that. Calcium citrate is WAY more absorbable by the body that calcium carbonate or other forms of calcium. Up to 70% MORE absorption of the c.citrate! What's to question?! Take calcium citrate if you supplement your calcium and keep your bones, heart and muscles healthy. And on a gardening note, again ::I seem almost obsessed with it, don't I? but its really my focus this last little while:: Last week I bought gloves. One week later, there are 6 or 7 holes worn through them. Trash time for the gloves only after only a week. Yeah I have been working hard. Explains the owies. And the rewards are worth it. 
~Kathie 
80
and Friday and since he works for a bank and Monday was a bank holiday, he had a full five days off. We managed to get a LOT done around the house and yard. He primed some of the windows for painting (old house that doesn't have the luxury of vinyl or fiberglass windows...yet :0D ), finished most
of the weeding in the herb bed, cleaned up the weed piles from what I pulled out of the side and peony beds, and helped with a lot of cleaning in the house. The house cleaning was necessary because 1. the 
house was a WRECK because we have been running constantly the past 6 weeks 2. I have a couple of portrait sessions coming up and 3. we were having people over on Sunday. 
but I have admission to make: I hate the tediousness of housework. I love the look of a clean house, but I HATE the redundancy of it. I was thinking about it the other day and realized that why I dislike it so much is because housework and cleaning are tasks that are never completed. I have a blinkin' white kitchen floor. I have to vac it, wash it and then vac it again when I clean it. And being that the damned thing is white AND in the middle of a 6 room downstairs, approximately 43 nanoseconds after the floor is finished, something spills, drips, drops or is tracked onto it.
If I vacuum our dark green family room carpet, within minutes there appears as if by magic: mulch, white dog fur from my dogs' undercoats or grass clippings. 
If I wash the clothes I have to dry them. And fold them. And put them away. Gah. Just keep stickin' those bamboo pieces under my nails.
expression? 
I gardened **ok more weeding than gardening happened** a bit more today. Not as much as I like because we had to run an errand early that necessitated getting up at 6a.m. 
plants in place. I love to find these "volunteer" plants and move them to help fill in empty spots. Today I relocated a dozen or so marigold seedlings, 5 or 6 Columbines, and a couple of Hosta babies. I also removed a big patch of Black Eyed Susans that were trying to strangle out my white Clematis and Heather. 
Another discovery today that was the climbing roses that were planted to either side of the old porch had died. It could be due to the fact that they were overgrown, but its more likely they succumbed to "wet feet" from standing in water over the winter. That is the biggest problem we have with over-wintering plants in our area. We have a lot of rain, so the ground will freeze, thaw, freeze, thaw repeatedly. Many plants just do not like this and protest this fact by curling up their rooty lil toes and dying. Myeh. I have lost 5 foot tall rosemaries, untold roses and lavenders, among other things, all from wet feet OR the constant freeze/thaw on the leaves and stems.
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