My weekend of gardening is about to commence!

Two years ago I used gardening as a big part of my exercise that spring and early summer. And it worked as I kept dropping weight and got stronger.  I hauled a HUGE amount of mulch - like it filled half my driveway it was so much mulch. We put down a stone path in our front yard and I built a new flower bed as well as added more perennials to 3 existing flower beds.

Last year I just tried to fill the holes of failed perennials and some light mulching and otherwise concentrated on my deck - prettying that up.

This year I will be doing the same, but with adding a few more perennials in other not very successful flower beds. So, it won't be weeks and weeks of puttering, but just a little bit.  Unfortunately, I'm starting the adventure with an already burned nose and back of neck and that was just from walking around the plant nursery for 2 days (burned both days). I burn as fast as most redheads - if not faster. Heck, my two red-headed boys don't burn as fast as either me or my black haired husband! So, I must wear my dorky hat and sunscreen. As much as sunscreen is needed, I hate it. I have oily skin, so adding cream or lotions to my face especially, NEVER feels good. I always feel like I can scrape the oil off my face with a spatula. Yuck. But, it's necessary as I've gotten some precancerous spots from too much sun exposure already (not melanoma).

As far as calories go, today will be a higher day, though within normal ranges. I had pancakes today for breakfast (almond and hazelnut flour replacing the wheat flour - super yummy - both my husband and older son prefer those) and some fresh fruit. Dinner will be salmon with a mango salsa - so more carbs than usually and a few more calories - more in line of 1400 calories for the day instead of 1150-1250. At least the carbs are from fruit, not grains.

Scale is still coming down. I lost another .5 today, so I'm at 228.4 (down from 241.6 April 1st). I think I'm beginning to see the difference in weight in my face now too. And BP was a perfect 117/78. Resting heart rate this morning was 52.

I'll show pictures of the garden progress as I finish up.

In other news, the baby house finches fledged yesterday afternoon. I think they might have been facing outward yesterday because they were ready to take off! That was a fun 13 days.  Here is there poor empty nest: