ack-ow! cat-cow!

(I'm such a poet these days!)

It used to be that a few hours of yard work was nothing.  I'm sure CD and I used to spend whole Saturdays

digging and planting, bending and stooping.  I love spending a spring day with my hands in the dirt, only I'm starting to wish the dirt was closer and not so low to the ground.

I mentioned that I've been planting a lot.  It started when CD helped me dig up the iris that seldom bloomed in our shady yard.  They're pastel, bearded iris and never seemed right in my garden.  I prefer bolder colors and a more simple style.

From the dozen or so that did bloom, I expected to dig up thirty or so.  Instead we discovered twelve dozen iris tubers.  (If you want some, send me a note.  I've already mailed some to Minnesota via Dave's Garden.)  I sent an email to the networking list at our church, hoping for more plant swaps.  Two people asked for tubers and two people offered to let me dig in their shady yards for plants.

I decided that was a good enough swap and got going.  Except I came home with a car full of plants and not enough places to put them.  That led to a long day of digging, amending and sort-of terracing part of my back hill.  In a full day's work-  much more than my body wanted me to do- I managed to improve about eight square feet.  And I was so tired and so sore I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to move the next day.

This is where the cat-cow reference comes in.  I took CD's advice (I do, some- times) and did some stretching.  Fifteen minutes of yoga stretches that evening and I woke up feeling fine.  I could tell I'd worked hard the previous day, but I was so pleased to not be in pain.  Today I worked a shorter day, but still feel stiff and sore.  I will wait until two little boys are in bed, and then stretch out my back.  (Stretching on the floor where I might be stepped upon or ridden as a horse is counter-productive I have found.)

For the gardeners... I have put in some beautiful ferns- I think I'm going to love the painted ferns in my backyard- some Solomon's seal, epimedium, woodland poppies, wood aster, native columbine, strawberry begonia, toad lilies, and more hellebores.  And, I still have five ajuga plants (hoping to divide them to have twenty!) that are living in my garage.  Maybe tomorrow.