The Yard

Yesterday when I got home from work, the hubster had already headed off to his job and I found myself at home alone.  My normal Thursday night workout with some girlfriends got cancelled, and suddenly I had a lot of free time and no plans for that time (very rare for this busy body who always has to be doing, planning, or working on something).  It was a beautiful, warm, low humidity summer day in Eastern NC (even more rare than me not having plans!), so I dropped my purse in the house, changed into comfy clothes, grabbed a hat, and headed out to the back yard to my mini portable hammock (this is what you use until you can save up the money for the real deal).

I spent 45 minutes in that hammock yesterday.  I'd taken some magazines to read, but found myself uninterested in them so I set them aside.  Instead, I spent that time sitting, swinging, breathing deep breaths of fresh air.  I spent that time detoxing from the past few weeks, that have worked my heart and my emotions up into knots of frustration, stress, irritation, and a total sense of being overwhelmed.  I took in my back yard.  Which yesterday, was a paradise.  Green grass.  So many beautiful plants and flowers (thank you previous owners for having a positive sense of landscaping in the back yard -- I'll forgive you for totally screwing up the front flower beds as a result).  Birds chirping -- so many birds!  I took in a hummingbird in the back yard feeding off some flowers (time to buy a hummingbird feeder!!! Love those little birds).  I took in even the loud buzzing of bees -- a glorious sound in the days of reduced bee population.  I took in the gentle breeze.  And slowly, the knots around my heart started melting away.

For the first time in weeks, I felt relaxed and normal.  And not just normal, I felt inspired!  Inspired to work on the lawn and tackle that front flower bed that the previous owners jacked up so badly.  So off I went to Lowe's, where I raided the last chance rack (seriously! How did I not know this existed before?! AMAZING!) and nabbed a 50% off rose bush.  I grabbed my gardening gloves and all my gardening tools once home and went to work on that flower bed.  I pulled up weeds.  I pulled up ground cover plants -- seriously.  Juniper is TERRIBLE.  I pulled up clover.  And then, I pulled up a wolf spider.  A large wolf spider.  "Nope!  I'm done!" was my reaction and I went inside.  Shiver.  I hate big spiders.  And I hate fuzzy ones even worse.