The Knee... It's Always the Knee...
My knees are killing me, and it's my own damn fault. Also, it was 25° outside when I got up this morning. I am in no way, shape, or form ready for winter. At least it was sunny, and the wind had dialed it back a little bit. It eventually got up into the mid-forties. It was about then that I looked over at the packages of flower bulbs sitting quietly in my kitchen that I remembered that bulbs need to be planted to work properly.
I should never be allowed to walk into a store with any kind of extra money available. God knows what I'll wind up buying. Somehow I'd managed to acquire 110 tulip bulbs, 140 crocus corms, and 16 daffodil bulbs. What the hell was I thinking? The daffodils, fine, are my favorite variety, Tahiti, don't require any care whatsoever, and there's only 16. Crocuses don't need any care, either, but 140 of them? The flowers are teensy, so I suppose you need a lot to make them noticeable. Tulips, on the other hand, are not easy to take care of. Good thing I like looking at them.
I made a good start today, crawling around on hands and knees, planting lots of lots of bulbs and corms around the base of new cherry tree. The town was nice enough to dig a huge hole there, back fill it with good topsoil, and dress it with a nice mulch layer, so I might as well take advantage. The resulting base is shaped like a volcano with the tree dead center. I planted 7 daffodils, and 28 of the tulips in clusters in the crater around the tree, and then 90 (90!) crocuses on the outer slopes. At least crocuses are easy to plant. Stick the pointy end of a croquet end stick about 2" into the dirt, pop a corm into the resulting hole, push it down like a musket ball with the blunt end of the stick, and collapse the hole after it. Tulips and daffodils require actual digging, unfortunately.
The rest, I think, are going to wind up at the top of the driveway, where the small bulb bed I planted last year is going to expand into a large bulb bed the width of the driveway. That's going to take some substantial digging, though. Good thing I have the week of Thanksgiving off.
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Afterward I layered up and went for a ride. I tried wearing two pairs of socks, and that seemed to work. I also tried wearing both a headband and the ear clamp, but that didn't seem to work as well. I'd hoped that the band would at least pad some of the clampiness, but no. The band actually let cold air get at my ears, and the clamp still squashed them just as hard.
Turns out the digging and crawling took a toll, because a third of the way into my second lap of the path I ran out of gas. I did manage to complete the lap, but I was really tired, and my knees were really sore. They still are. It hasn't helped that when I got home it was time to do a couple weeks worth of laundry, so I've been charging up and down the basement stairs ever since.
I should never be allowed to walk into a store with any kind of extra money available. God knows what I'll wind up buying. Somehow I'd managed to acquire 110 tulip bulbs, 140 crocus corms, and 16 daffodil bulbs. What the hell was I thinking? The daffodils, fine, are my favorite variety, Tahiti, don't require any care whatsoever, and there's only 16. Crocuses don't need any care, either, but 140 of them? The flowers are teensy, so I suppose you need a lot to make them noticeable. Tulips, on the other hand, are not easy to take care of. Good thing I like looking at them.
I made a good start today, crawling around on hands and knees, planting lots of lots of bulbs and corms around the base of new cherry tree. The town was nice enough to dig a huge hole there, back fill it with good topsoil, and dress it with a nice mulch layer, so I might as well take advantage. The resulting base is shaped like a volcano with the tree dead center. I planted 7 daffodils, and 28 of the tulips in clusters in the crater around the tree, and then 90 (90!) crocuses on the outer slopes. At least crocuses are easy to plant. Stick the pointy end of a croquet end stick about 2" into the dirt, pop a corm into the resulting hole, push it down like a musket ball with the blunt end of the stick, and collapse the hole after it. Tulips and daffodils require actual digging, unfortunately.
The rest, I think, are going to wind up at the top of the driveway, where the small bulb bed I planted last year is going to expand into a large bulb bed the width of the driveway. That's going to take some substantial digging, though. Good thing I have the week of Thanksgiving off.
---
Afterward I layered up and went for a ride. I tried wearing two pairs of socks, and that seemed to work. I also tried wearing both a headband and the ear clamp, but that didn't seem to work as well. I'd hoped that the band would at least pad some of the clampiness, but no. The band actually let cold air get at my ears, and the clamp still squashed them just as hard.
Turns out the digging and crawling took a toll, because a third of the way into my second lap of the path I ran out of gas. I did manage to complete the lap, but I was really tired, and my knees were really sore. They still are. It hasn't helped that when I got home it was time to do a couple weeks worth of laundry, so I've been charging up and down the basement stairs ever since.