It's about Time!

Today I graduated from Physical Therapy!  I began therapy on March 14th ~ five days after my knee replacement surgery.  I've gone three times a week since then and today was the very last day!  Therapy should have ended about a month ago but I developed a problem with one of my hips while doing the knee therapy....go figure!  But now everything seems to be working pretty well.  Stairs are still a little difficult and kneeling on both knees probably isn't ever going to happen again.....but I can walk without pain and I can dig and plant and rake and mulch and water ~ and that is exactly what I did today.  It was great fun and I feel wonderful!  Here's a peek at where I had all that fun.

This is our backyard.  Our home sits on a corner lot and the garage is behind the house. I took the first photo with my back to the back of the house.  When we bought the house (over 20 years ago) it came with an in ground swimming pool and a fence down the middle of the backyard. I'm standing on the pool side of the yard ~ you can see a teeny bit of it way over on the left side of the photo.  That's all you'll be seeing right now because the ugly black cover doesn't come off until next Tuesday!  I was standing in front of the raised bed in the second photo when I took the first one.  If you could peek through that window you'd see my craft room. The newest addition to that bed is the "Apple Mint" ~ it's right in front of the star- shaped birdhouse. My friend Tisha gave it to me ~ thank you Tisha!

I do not have a green thumb and unfortunately we don't have a lot of time for yard work. This year we've decided to really make the yard a priority.  Our ultimate goal is to do away with the (numerous) areas of just plain old dirt. Growing grass has been a real challenge....not as much on the pool side of the yard (although we did manage to kill a big patch of it as evidenced by the photo), but to the right of the fence there are two very large oak trees and their roots and the shade have made it tough to get a lawn established.  But we have a plan and it's written down on a list!  It involves landscape timbers, mulch, stepping stones and hopefully some bricks. Bill and I are having a difference of opinion about the bricks.  But I'm pretty sure he'll see it my way!  : )

So today, with the help of my new bionic knee, I did a bunch of clean up & weeding, a bit of planting and a little dreaming......and you know, dreams DO come true!  Stay tune for more backyard posts.  Oh yes, while I was out in the yard working, every time there was a breeze I smelled this.......

.....sweet, sweet Honeysuckle!!  I love this bush.....but it's about due for it's yearly trim.

Better add that to the list!