The ground is at a downward angle on that side of the yard, so I had to dig into the grass to make it level. This box faces west, so I think I will use it as the herb planter.
Saturday I started with moving the other ammo box over to make room for the vegetable planter. I moved the strawberries left from last year into a pot, dug up some grass to move the ammo box, set up the vegetable planter, dug up a four foot by four foot section of grass, and set in the planter nice and level,
Th grass was really heavy from all the rain we had during the week, but I took some big pieces that I dug up and moved them over to fill in Cruiser's favorite digging spot in the back corner of the yard.
Then I threw my back out.
I can be a bit driven on a project. I once broke up a concrete sidewalk in my backyard in Simi and used the pieces to build steps up my back hill. I hauled big pieces of concrete across my yard and up the hill, gradually digging into the hill and setting the pieces to make level steps. I think that was 2002 and I was only 40. I'm sure I was using the project to avoid some emotional issue. I knew halfway through digging up that grass for the planter that I should stop and save the rest for the next day, but no, I was driven on to finish and am now reminded that I am not 40 anymore.
At least by Sunday I knew not to mess around with back pain and took enough Bayer aspirin and used a heating pad and I was much better by Monday afternoon. I used one of those heating pads that you unwrap and it heats up and stays hot for eight hours. How does it do that? Those are one modern invention I really appreciate.
Then I spent two days trying to resist doing more yard work and forced to sit unable to deny whatever emotional issue I really wanted to avoid.
Mars has been in retrograde. This is one of the first times I could feel it, checked to see if it really was, and then checked to see when it would be over. Things that won't resolve, missed calls, delayed messages, forgetting things, and it wasn't just me, Alyssa was feeling it worse that I was. Mars went out of retrograde April 4, and for me it went out with a vengeance. Maybe Mars in retrograde also goes with avoidance, Mars comes out of retrograde and reality hits you in the face.
My seeds are not doing anything yet, are planted seeds like a watched pot not boiling? The blueberries and raspberries are doing super, though,
The blueberries are supposed to have berries in June and they really look like they might have berries this year, although they still seem like pretty small bushes. The raspberries are later, last year Sarah had raspberries July through September. She cuts hers down to a few inches high in the Fall and mine are looking just as good as hers this year, so I am pretty excited about having a good crop of my own.
On my walk this week the Chinese section of the cemetery was full of flowers and offerings of food, oranges, apples, boiled eggs. I thought it was too late for Chinese New Year and it was, it was Qingming. Qingming is the Pure Brightness Festival or Clear Bright Festival, Ancestors Day or Tomb Sweeping Day, a traditional Chinese festival on the 104th day after the winter solstice usually occurring around April 5. Qingming is when people go outside and enjoy the greenery of springtime and tend to the graves of their ancestors.
Alyssa thinks it is weird that I walk through the cemetery. I told her I prefer to walk on dirt over concrete and that I like to quack at the geese. The cemetery is full of geese and they honk at me, so I honk back. Alyssa thought that was even weirder. I love seeing those geese on my walks, it reminds me how much I like being in Idaho and how easy it is for me here to be somewhere where I feel peaceful. I might as well share that feeling with the geese.
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