A current gardening maniac and mother nature messed with me!

I had plans yesterday of spending the day in the yard, much like the day before yesterday. I had a plan in place, but... mother nature decided to take an unfriendly turn. First, when it was supposed to be partly cloudy in the morning, it was heavily clouded. I went to the garden center anyway. Then, while there, it started to rain lightly. I kept looking around and got my annuals and the potting soil, brought it home and hoped it would stop raining. It did for a short while, but looked grim. My husband came out and dug up the old azalea bush that had died in front of our house and while he was working on that, it started to lightly rain again. He went off to buy some mulch and I set to work, in the light rain to at least get everything ready for planting the next day. I went to under our deck where we had put all my glazed clay pots. I have about 30 of them, so it took many trips (two pots at  a time) to get them all up to the front of the house.

This fall we had a handyman take down a dilapidated fence at the side of our yard and to remove all the junk from under the deck which included sections of that same dilapidated fencing plus other crap. While I was under the deck, I see we we still had a couple things under there - a broken wooden chair and a stone cast bird bath in two pieces. The bowl wasn't broken. How about the base? It was partially buried in the dirt, so it was hard to see, but I pulled it up and sure enough, fine condition. Looks very similar to this one which costs $400 for a vintage bird bath!!! Quite a find!

I carried the heavy thing out and set it up. Voila free stone cast bird bath! Neat! But it started to rain harder so all thoughts of doing more outside came to a halt.

I came in, started dinner and then had an epiphany about our yard. You see, we have a couple problem areas. One is this:

These are mowing pains in the butt. First, the lamp post. Then, and worse, is this small,  about 2 feet in diameter, flower bed. I first thought, "Well, I'll just get rid of that silly flower bed stuck in the middle of the yard", but, once you lift up the upside down clay pot, you realize why that flower bed and clay pot are there. There's a sewer line pipe smack in the middle of the yard. If you don't put something around it, you'll trip over it as it's only 4" above the ground. Grrrr...

So, I've been unhappy with it since I discovered I can't just remove it. But last night I realized I should make a flower garden island the incorporates both obstacles and make it big enough to make it easier to mow around. All of a sudden I felt so much happier. I hate eye sores and in our front yard? We have a lot of people walk by our front yard since our cul de sac leads to one of the entrances to the path around the lake.

Then there's the back yard. I like it for the most part. It's shaded near the house, and more open in the back. It gently slopes downwards and is very mature. But we have this (photo borrowed from Maggie Duncan):

Don't get me wrong, I love the rocks, but like in the front yard, they are just stuck out there with no thought as to why they are in the middle of the yard. And, our backyard gets even more notice as it has the path going right by it (you can see it in the background of the picture). Every one of my neighbors have a spectacular back yard, except us. So, while I'm in a manic state about getting our yard in order, before the heat sets in and I'll want to retreat indoors, I realized I should make this into an island flower/rock garden! I still want it kid friendly enough for people to sit on the rocks (my 6 year old loves sitting on them), but instead of them looking like they were just left there after building the house, now, hopefully, they'll look like they are there for design purposes.

All of this, of course, is very good exercise. Digging, scraping, lifting, hauling and so on. So, on the days I'm spending hours in the garden, I don't need to workout. Unfortunately, I didn't get hours in the garden yesterday. I did some weight lifting - putting 12 30 pound bags on a flat bed, putting them in my car and then taking them out of my car, helping my husband take 40 pound bags out of his car, and carrying 30 various sized pots from under the deck to the front yard and that bird bath, but nothing aerobic. So, I had to go to my basement and jump around. I only did a 25 minute workout (out of a 40 minute workout). I just couldn't stand the tape I chose. Way too dancy and too much twisting. It's one thing on a wood floor, but I'm on a new carpet with plush foam underneath in the basement. I try to avoid twisting movements to protect my knee. I got enough done to get a workout in to supplement what else I had done during the day, but blah... that tape will go to the donate pile.

The weight is still creeping downwards ever so slowly. I got spoiled from my great losses in March (which was probably mostly my thyroid getting in line). Slow and steady, Melissa, slow and steady. Oh, and I forgot to do measurements yesterday! So, there they are below. Again, slow and steady!

Stats for 5/2/11:

Beginning weight: 255.6   Now: 218.6 (exactly 37 pounds lost)
Exercise total hours in 2011: 120 hours
Total miles walked/biked/ran in 2011: 369.5/1000

Measurements:

Beginning chest: 47"  Now: 45" (change since last month: up .5"? LOL)
Beginning Waist: 43" Now: 37" (change since last month: down 1.5")
Beginning Hips: 50" Now: 46" (change since last month: down 1.5")
Beginning Upper Arm: 17.75" Now: 16" (change since last month: down .25")
Beginning Thigh: 30"  Now: 27" (change since last month: down .25")