Spring is the inspiration, fall the expiration. -- John Burroughs
The cast on my wrist came off October 1. The next day, after occupational therapy (OT), my husband (MH) drove me to the local Agway. I had hoped to buy a black-eyed susan plant. I had tried growing one some years ago but it didn't take.
I did not find it, but I did find two plants I've always wanted to grow plus one, a lavender, I planted in my ornamental grass garden years ago but it didn't survive the invasive roots of the ash tree, which has since been cut down. This time I decided to grow the lavender in a pot I put by the front door. It is a plant deer don't browse for the same reason people buy lavender products - the scent.
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| Potted lavender, 2025 (Margo D. Beller) |
The other two plants I bought are autumn growers - Japanese anemone and a New England aster, which I've seen growing tall in fields, its purple flowers usually hosting bees.
So a few days later I spread my tarp on my enclosed porch and worked. It was a joy to be working with plants, My wrist, thanks to OT, was much stronger but I was still careful when it came to moving a bag of soil, filling a pail with some of my stored compost and then putting in the plants. Then I managed to get the aster into the ground behind the deer netting, put the lavender in its pot by the door and put the anemone into its pot behind the netting.
I shook out the tarp over the backyard and then took to folding it.
That's when I stepped backwards at the edge of the patio, lost my balance and fell on my butt.
My head survived and my back was jarred but they had fallen on soil, not the patio blocks - a blessing considering falls are a leading cause of death for seniors, which I reluctantly acknowledge being. I retrieved my glasses. This time my wrists weren't involved, my hands being in front of me holding the tarp.
Again? I told myself. I had been so careful with the soil, the pots, the planting. All I was doing was folding a tarp. But falls can happen at any time, in the house or outside. I've had both. They are not fun.
Carefully, I finished folding the tarp and went in to tell MH of my latest fall.
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| Potted anemone. The wiring around this and the lavender is to keep out digging chipmunks. (Margo D. Beller) |
The immediate consequence was a pain at the top of my left leg that was so bad I could not stand, much less walk. Pain makes me a snarling beast, and that scared MH. But after a few days of heat and rest that pain diminished and then went away. So did the lower back strain although there is still one area - either the sacrum or the hip - that I have not helped by hiking around during a period when high numbers of birds have been migrating south.
These pains used to be gone in a day. But that was when I was much younger.
The plants are thriving, especially the lavender. My wrist improves, allowing me to finally drive solo and spare MH being my chauffeur. I've also had to move the anemone pot under the overhang so it wasn't drowned by our recent nor'easter, tho' our area wasn't hit nearly as hard as the Jersey Shore. My wrist reminds me when I've gone too far.
When OT ends next month I am sure my wrist will never be 100%. I will have to live with that, along with the other aches and pains that have dogged me in recent years. It won't stop me from birding areas where the migrating birds are. It won't stop me from going out to listen for birds on the back patio with Merlin. Nor will it stop me from writing this blog, which I'm doing wearing a compression sleeve and a wrist brace.
It beats the alternative.
