Ouch

Every year about this time, I get an entire day to work in the yard--the first full gardening day since about October. And every year on that day, I get very ambitious, hoeing everything in sight and completing some big project that involves shoveling and moving heavy objects. On that day, I get a bad case of Almost-Spring-Fever and forget that I'm not 20 anymore, with nearly limitless stamina and a nearly-invincible back. Today was that day.

I built a new bed to house what was formerly a crabgrass patch decorated with a few rosebushes, hoed out the crabgrass, shoveled out a whole pickup load of compost onto the new bed, dumped wheelbarrow loads of the (rather wet) compost, emptied a very large (and very heavy) terracotta pot, planted a bed of strawberries, carted a heavy planter uphill from one end of the yard to the other, pruned all my roses, and dragged a yard waste bin around. I'm basking in the warm glow of accomplishment, while my lower back is basking in... pain. What the !@#$% was I thinking? I'm a 40-year-old librarian! But the new bed looks really nice. I'd take a picture of it, but that would require getting up and walking.