Spring garden update

It's been a long time since I wrote here. The main reason is that I've been working on another writing project. I may say more about that some other time.

But for now, I want to update you on how our new garden bed is doing. 

It’s been just over a year since we planted it. 

Some plants did not survive the winter so there are gaps. The writing on the plant labels also didn't last--so I'm not sure about the names of all the plants that didn't survive without carefully studying the diagram we got from our landscape designer. 

Others are so prolific that they are crowding out their neighbors. I want to remove and or rearrange things some time. I don't know why our designer had us plant so many things so close together. She seemed to think we would be upset like other clients have been if there was space between the plants despite me telling her that I like space and I prefer a more minimal look. 

I took the above photos this morning. I was planning to write this blog update using a photo I took a few weeks ago when it looked more interesting. But I decided I wanted a more up to date photo. It also gave me a good excuse to take a break and go outside. While I was there I decided to take a longer break (aka procrastinate) and sit outside so I could drink my tea and soak up some vitamin d. I know it's shady in the photos but it got sunnier as I sat their. And I have read that it's possible to get vitamin d in the shade--it just takes longer. 

Anyway it was nice to spend some time outside. I haven't done that much this spring. I don't know why. I do enjoy it when I spend time outside. Though after enjoying the birdsong and writing in my journal for a while I started noticing things that need doing. Things like the soaker hose that needs to be tidied away and all the plants that need to be pruned or rearranged. I also noticed that my husband had weeded and edged this weekend so I sent him a thank you text. So that was good.

Here are some other photos from this spring:

The tall purple flowers in back are Gulf Coast Penstemon. The bright pink flowers in the front are magenta Dianthus

This is the photo from a few weeks ago that I referred to above. The magenta Dianthus and giant yellow irises were at their peak. I snapped it after we got home from a ten day trip back east. I was pleased to see it looked so presentable despite our having been away. 
The grass was a little patchy. But that seems to be a common thing around here this year.

The desert willow tree had a few flowers on it recently but there aren't anymore at the moment.

Note: I don't know if I wrote the plant names correctly. I think if it is a genus then it is supposed to be capitalized and italicized but other types of names such as popular names are not. If you know the correct way to write any of the above names feel free to tell me in the comments below.

Fall Colors and First hike - Cleburne State Park trip

Is it really only four days since 2022 ended? (it was when I started writing this!) It seems like weeks ago.  

And speaking of weeks ago... It is weeks since our RV trip that I want to write about here. It was kind of a big deal since it was our first trip since I injured my foot last July. 

The Sunday after Thanksgiving we drove our motorhome to Cleburne State Park. The Park is about an hour's drive west of us and 12 miles west of the city of Cleburne. 

Our reservations were for a week but we enjoyed it so much that we stayed a few days longer. There is so much I could write about but I'll just hit some of the highlights. 

The Fall colors were stunning and a major highlight. We took lots of photos, as you'll see. 

These next several are from our first short walk together the day after we arrived. It was short in distance anyway... I stopped to take so many pictures that it took a lot longer than we intended. But my foot coped.

It was hard to capture the colors with my regular camera settings so I experimented with the art setting a little. These may seem unbelievable but the colors really were about this bright. The sun shining onto and through the leaves made the colors "pop". 

My patient husband held my hiking poles while I was taking photos.

After our walk I took a rest by the lake while John explored it in a rented canoe. He rented the canoe instead of using our inflatable because he wanted to try out using a small single person canoe. He was thinking of buying one for when he wants to go out by himself because he thought it might be less work and easier to carry than our larger two person inflatable. I think he decided it's not.

John in the rented canoe.
I think the big birds are turkey vultures. They really like those tall trees and I really liked watching them. I won't bore you with all the pictures I took of them.
The lake at the state park is named Cedar Lake. There is another lake in the town of Cleburne that is named Pat Cleburne Lake.

The big high-lite of the trip was several days later when I managed a longer hike. We started out not knowing how far I would be able to go. But I just kept going and made it 2.2 miles. It probably helped that there were lots of pretty things to photograph so we took frequent breaks to take pictures. It was really great to be able to walk so much again. This time to save on weight I only had my cell phone camera. 

The fall colors were still delightful despite the gray sky. 

This picture and the next show part of the flood control channel built by the CCC in the 1930s.

Fungi on a tree trunk.

Other highlights of our trip:

We saw a live theater production of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" put on by the Plaza Theatre Company in downtown Cleburne. It was a musical. One of my favorite things about it were the many very old Christmas carols that they wove throughout. 

We also enjoyed a couple of museums: 

The Cleburne Railroad Museum:

It was educational ;-) and also just good fun to watch the model trains and explore the miniature town they built around it. 

There was also a miniature Christmas village set up there just for the season:

We also visited the Chisolm Trail Outdoor Museum which includes the Big Bear Native American Museum--both well worth a visit. The day we were there the cold blustery weather wasn't very conducive to wanting to be outdoors but there were enough things to see inside the buildings so that helped. It was also nice that there were not many other people there so we had the opportunity to talk to the staff. They were friendly and knowledgeable about the exhibits. It also added to the charm that many of them wore period costumes.

It was definitely warm at the blacksmith's!

A depiction of the Nolan River School that was in use in the mid 1800s. 

This 16 foot square log cabin is the original Courthouse of Johnson County. It was built in 1855 for $49. It was moved here later to be part of this outdoor museum.

Inside the Courthouse

Taking a little break

Another highlight was this big grassy area across from our RV site. It was nice to be able to look out the window while eating and see nature rather than another RV. It also made a good walking track for my foot therapy exercises. When we first arrived I was still needing regular exercises to build strength and flexibility. 

At first I only made it part way around. But I kept pushing myself to do a little more each time. It was a red letter day when I got all the way around. John measured it and I think all the way around is a half mile.

Here is another view at sunset.

I hope you enjoyed coming along on our trip!

I'm walking again!

I'm finally walking again! My feet are healed and I'm out of the wheelchair and walking without crutches!

It is such a blessing. It's been a long ordeal. Thank you to everyone who prayed for me! Sorry I didn't blog through it. Not sure why, maybe a touch of depression and lack of vision--seemed like there was nothing to say accept "I'm still muddling along waiting to heal." It also seemed like things were so undecided and up in the air most weeks that I barely knew what was up myself. 

In case you missed it, in mid July I stepped into a hole unexpectedly and injured my left foot. I wrote about it in my last post. My right foot was slightly sprained at the same time.  

My right ankle healed quickly from that fall but then partway through the recovery of my left foot, in a sort of freak accident I sprained my right foot again. Thankfully both feet are now healed. 

We're still not sure all of the details of the injuries to my left foot. My podiatrist x-rayed it four weeks ago when I was finally able to see him. He said there was a widened area on the fourth metatarsal bone which seemed to indicate a healed fracture. That is consistent with where the initial bruising and worst pain was (and where it still hurts after I've been on my feet for a while). I asked about the 2nd metatarsal. He did not think there was a fracture there. He said the pain in that spot might have been from a strained ligament. (As I mentioned in my previous blog post the radiologist who interpreted the first x-ray said there might have been a fracture on the 2nd metatarsal.) There were also no doubt various other, mostly undiagnosed, soft tissue injuries and strained places. An MRI showed a small healed tear in a tendon. Since it was healed by the time of the MRI the podiatrist said it might have been from some other time. 

The podiatrist ordered therapy to stretch and strengthen everything. So I've been seeing a therapist a couple of times a week and doing therapy on my own twice a day. 

About two weeks ago I started walking with crutches. I tried a cane too but that didn't give enough support. Then last Monday the therapist said I walked better without either one and she wanted me to put more pressure on my left foot so she took me off everything. 

There have been a lot of firsts since then. The first time I stood at the sink to brush and water-pik my teeth was thrilling! By the time I was done though my legs were near collapse. Clearly I will need to pace myself. (Don't worry it wasn't the first time I brushed my teeth! During my recovery I did it at the kitchen table.)

Tomorrow it will be a week since I got off the crutches. I've had a lot of other "firsts" as well. Such as making dinner and driving myself to the therapist appointment. John was particularly thankful for those two.

Here are a few photos from our ordeal:

Our bathroom doorway is too narrow for the regular wheelchair we borrowed. So John rigged up this contraption to get me into the bathroom to take a shower. The first time we used it, it worked flawlessly. The second time, though, was not so good! It collapsed under me. The orange strap must have been a little loose and one of the chair legs came off the platform. In my attempt to keep from falling and to protect my left foot I ended up spraining my right one. I'm glad I wasn't hurt any worse. But coping with two injured feet was definitely a challenge.
After that a friend lent us a "transport chair" that is narrow enough to get through the bathroom doorway. So I was able to have showers without incident. The transport chair only has small wheels though, which meant I was not able to propel it myself so I still needed the regular wheelchair for everything else.

A friend sent me a care package to cheer me up. It included this kit to make these happy little pansies.

Another project I worked on is a scrapbook of my years at university (Cal Poly San Luis Obispo). It's not quite done. I'm hoping to finish it before the holidays.
 

One of my foot exercises is to pick up small objects with my toes. Here I am picking up a large paperclip. 

We got this "peddler" to use for therapy. We didn't realize we already had one in the attic. John found it later when he was looking for something else. So now we have two.
I suggested we could use them together. It might be fun to sit side by side and peddle together while watching tv! John didn't seem excited though.

Drama a-foot! The left foot that is.

Nearly four weeks ago I fell into a hole and injured my left foot. (five now as it took a while to finish this post)

We were walking in a park near our house one Sunday morning before church. Ironically I was trying to avoid turning my ankle in the many cracks in the ground from all the hot dry weather this summer. John commented on a tree that was growing sideways up ahead. Neither one of us saw the hole. It was so covered over with grass it was not obvious--until I stepped in it! My left foot kept going, groping for solid ground. I lost my balance and sat down with an undignified screech. 

John helped me up and out of the hole where my foot and backside were wedged and to a nearby picnic table. While I checked my foot John investigated the hole. When he reached into it he discovered a cover that should have been over it but was broken and had fallen inside. The hole was a small man-made pit, maybe for irrigation connections. The cover must have been off it for some time for the grass to have grown through and around the hole to obscure it so thoroughly. 

Here it is with the lid John found.
It's more obvious after our adventures with it. 

The sideways tree and me rubbing my foot in the background. The hole in the foreground this time with the lid sticking up to hopefully warn others and help the repairmen find it. (John reported it to the city and they said they fixed it.)

Anyway after checking my foot over and wiggling my toes I thought I could walk home. It started hurting more as I walked but I made it home. Over the next few days I did my best to stay off it and ice and elevate it and all that stuff on-line articles say to do for sprains. 

It seemed to be getting better so I started doing more but it got worse again. So I was careful again for a few more days and then started doing more again. Then it got worse again. I would have seen a doctor sooner but our regular doctor's office was closed for a couple of weeks and one article I read on "Dr. Google" said that a stage-one sprain could take two weeks to heal so I thought I could wait until our doctor's office was open again. ("stage-one" is no swelling or visible bruising.) The symptoms didn't quite fit the description of a "stage one" sprain, though, so that should have given me a clue. There was swelling and bruising but only on the upper left side of my foot, not on the ankle.

Here it is after several days. The swelling had gone down and the bruising was starting to heal. 

Anyway after two and a half weeks I finally saw a doctor. Actually he's a nurse practitioner (NP), but I didn't know that until after I got there and was in the exam room waiting for him. Anyway he was available and my husband has seen him before and thinks well of him. He said there is tissue damage along the three left metatarsals. He ordered x-rays to check for fractures. 

The x-rays showed a "possible nondisplaced fracture along the lateral base of the second metatarsal that is best seen on the oblique radiograph." I'm not an expert but from what the NP said and what Google says: the metatarsals are the long bones on the top of the foot that connect the toe bones to the ankle bones. There are five, one for each toe. The second one corresponds to the toe next to the big toe. A nondisplaced fracture means the two parts of the bone are still in the proper alignment so surgery should not be necessary. The "base" is near the ankle end of the metatarsal. I don't know what "lateral base" means. The NP thought the radiologist said "a possible fracture" because it mainly shows on one of the x-ray views. He said usually a fracture will show on more than one view. 

I got ahold of the x-ray to see for myself what it looks like. I have no training in this so I can't tell what it's supposed to look like or what the radiologist was noticing. There is one place that I wonder if it is the fracture he is referring to (I put a circle around it). If it is a fracture it looks like it was starting to heal. Which it should have since it had been two and a half weeks at that point.

At any rate the NP said to stay off of the foot completely for 2-3 days even if there wasn't a fracture to help the ligaments and tendons heal. He said that if he had seen me right after the injury he would have said to stay completely off it for 5 days but since it had presumably healed a little already he thought that 2-3 days was enough. After that he said I could start putting weight on it "as tolerated." 

When I asked for more clarification He said it might be difficult for an active person but that I need to go easy on it and not do too much. 

I was surprised when he referred to me as an active person and almost said I wasn't. But then I thought, well I did get this injury while out for a walk and I keep reinjuring it because I want to be up doing housework and stuff. From his perspective maybe I am an active person. I tend to think of myself as bordering on lazy. But maybe that's another example of perfectionism (something I am trying to get free from.) 

A friend let us borrow their wheelchair which is a huge help. (I wasn't able to manage with crutches.)

I stayed off it completely for the first few days like he said. Since then I've started putting it on the floor sometimes but it doesn't seem to like it so I'm not doing it much. 

This picture shows how we set up my room to help me cope and not put weight on my foot.  The black question mark shaped bed rail on the side of the mattress was something we got for my Mom when she was living with us several years ago. Its a big help with transferring to and from the bed. We were storing it in the attic all these years--(that and the bedside commode which is also from when my Mom lived here. Our bathroom doors are too narrow for the wheelchair.)  I'm very thankful I did not declutter them! The black boot was from a couple of years ago when my Mom broke her ankle. I've tried several other braces and shoe type things but they don't give enough support.

Last week I asked our Pastor and his assistant from our church to visit and pray for me. I do believe it helped. But it's not all the way healed yet.

John wants me to call the NP and get a referral for an orthopedic doctor. I want to be willing to see another doctor, but I hesitate partly because from what others have said these things take time and partly because I really dislike going to doctors! (It is feeling better this week--I'm writing this over several days. The NP said that since it seems to be improving I can wait a little longer and see how it does before seeing an orthopedic doctor.)

Last night I dreamed I was in the hospital. In the dream--nightmare really--they kept me for several days so they could rack up a huge bill and when my foot still wasn't better they vigorously squeezed and twisted it with some sort of metal hook like thing! Then I woke up. 

I'm glad that didn't happen! I don't think it meant anything. Though the last part might have been triggered by the discomfort of wearing the boot. When I woke up my foot was hurting. I massaged it a little through a gap in the boot which helped.

I don't know why any of this happened, of course. And I very much wish it hadn't! But one good thing is that it’s been a wake up of sorts. It has reminded me that I don’t know what the future holds. I need to make good use of the time and abilities that I have while I have them. If I am ever going to write a book, for example (which I'm thinking about--BTW), then I need to start working on it while I still can. I can still type and I have some of my wits about me. So there’s no excuse. There will never be the “perfect time” to do it. If I keep waiting for that or any other sort of “magical” thing to happen to make me perfectly sure and confident before I start then I’ll never start. 

Waiting for a perfect time to do something (which of course never comes) is one of the traps of perfectionism according to Stephen Guise in his book “How to Be an Imperfectionist.” I started reading that this spring. That resonated at the time but now it feels like it’s being chiseled into my brain. 

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It is now several days since I started writing this post and I just want to finish it and post it. I took a couple of days off from everything this week--just laid around and listened to audio books and rested. The soft tissue around the fifth metatarsal is still really painful and it doesn't have much support or protection compared to other parts of my foot so I took the executive decision to stay off it more. I've been told that soft tissue like tendons and ligaments can take as long, or longer, than bone to heal. I really don't want to make things take longer by my impatience and unrealistic expectations. 

There are lots of other things I could write about that have happened since my last blog post. But I need to save them for another time or this will never be done and it will be so long no one will read it!