This afternoon, I decided I would read everything I had written over my time here. My, my, my how life has changed. My house is less full, I was right about the recession, there is a new sewing machine in my sewing room, I am heavier, cook less, and…. Let me catch you up.

May of 2010:  As every spring, Saturday morning found me out spading up the gardens and hanging out clothes. Sunday morning my left knee really hurt.  Monday I went to work,  and I noticed I still had some pain while walking up the ramp to the building. I had only gotten about 20 feet into the building, my left foot seemed to be stuck to the carpet and the pain in my knee became unreal. Talk about stopping dead in your tracks! The gals who came in with me ran to my desk and got my chair. They pushed me nearly a half block to my cubicle. We all were laughing, but it was not really a laughing matter. Two hours later I was back in town at my doctor’s office explaining the pain was unreal. (Of course my insurance was not going to kick in for a month!) There was an Xray, pain pills and I was told to stay off it for a week, then 6-8 weeks on crutches. I was lucky, as my friend, Marie, had come to live with me for a little while. She took good care of me and the furbrats.

May of 2011:  There is no more gardening for me. Luckily, I have one of the best neighbors in the world. Beth takes care of moving my snow and mowing the grass and keeping the yard looking presentable.

Beth loves to be outside and do yard work. I swear she use to mow her yard 3 times a week! Over the 17 years she has lived next door, the tree in her back yard has grown so large that her garden spot is mostly shaded. For the last few years, her tomato and pepper plants were sadly puny.

I decided to invite her to use my garden spots and water, which has worked out for both of us. I get veggies and she gets to play in the dirt. Every day in the summer, there is a grocery bag of “the picks of the day”. I gave her all my canning jars, so she can make (me) salsa and refrigerator pickles. In the winter there is a bag several times a month with some wonderful baked goods!

May of 2012: I have hated to go into the back yard because the flower beds have become a real mess. Beth has worked hard to keep the yard cleaned up and looking neat, but those flower beds broke my heart. Late this winter I decided to see if Beth would like to plant more areas. She said she would be happy to have more space, so has pulled out most of the flower beds and last week started planting. The space is rather bare, but I love the look because I do not see a few flowers with all the weeds. There are still a few flowered areas, which I hope I can at least clean up a bit.