I'm not ready for this.

It's 63 degrees again this morning. It really feels like fall. We should reach the high 70s today. No rain in the forecast until tomorrow. We got a whole 1/4" yesterday. The soil is only damp on top.

I'm on one crutch now. In the house, I can walk around without the crutches. In the yard and at the store, I don't trust my leg. It's been two weeks today since the hateful lawnmower stoned me. It's been two weeks since I've walked on the leg. It needs some time to adjust. But it is much better than even a week ago when the infection started.

So I hobbled around the yard this morning. The white bed is dead. I'll be pulling most of the plants later in the week once I can maneuver without crutches. The potager is done. My rooted and transplanted tomatoes didn't make it. Two weeks without water/rain didn't help. It was probably too late anyway. The perennial bed is still doing okay. A few plants need to be removed. Seeds need to be collected from the rudbeckias. I need to mark certain plants so I can move them this fall. All in good time. I still have a kitchen to remodel.

There were some good things in the garden this morning. The fig I raised from cuttings has done extremely well this year. I want to move it to the potager next spring, after I've built my raised beds using the cheap landscape timbers I bought more than a month ago. Grown from a 12" cutting, it's over 4' tall today. No figs this year...



The Miscanthus "Cosmopolitan" has done really well too. Trevor bought me this one for helping with the garage. That's a Red Texas Star hibiscus behind it.



Salvia subrotunda. Babies have already sprouted in the path and around this plant. The hummers love it. The goldfinches have been harvesting seed for months. It's an annual, but I've been told it reseeds like crazy.



Yvonne's salvia. I wish I had planted this in more sun. There's always next year. I've been collecting seeds. Joshua helped my collect a whole bag full of brown flower stems this past Sunday. I should have lots to share.



Finally, looking forward to next year, these are rooted/rooting cuttings. On the right, Jim's dianthus (Bath's pink). The others were rooted in the cloner and potted up during the last two weeks. I even got an oakleaf hydrangea to root. I'm really excited about that one.



Working today. Lots of mums, asters, and mums arriving from the greenhouses. I'm hoping I can spend an hour at a time on my feet. Yesterday I managed 30 minutes before having to sit down again. I'm not going to push it though. I have a lot of plans for Thursday, my day off.

I'm beat.

I don't say it often, but this leg thing has me whipped. This morning, I went outside to attempt some watering. After wrestling with the hoses and crutches for 10 minutes, I gave up. Let it die. I did manage to collect a few seeds yesterday evening. There's a ton of castor beans out there. The salvia subrotunda is covered with seed pods. There are babies already this year under the current plant.

So instead of watering, I focused on things that I like. Here's the shrub island. The pineapple sage in the foreground was blooming in May. It should bloom again real soon.



My new Rose of Sharon. There's no tag, but it's a double pink. I think it will look good with the crape myrtles in the back yard next year. Maybe underplanted with some echinacea.



Finally, the mind has decided to shut down....Perilla. I love this plant.



Went back to the doctor. Infection. More antibiotics, something to relieve the swelling, more antibiotics, and some cultures to test for additional infection. They also took x-rays since no one at the emergency room did. It's bad, but should be much better by Monday. I could even be up and moving if the soreness in the bone isn't an issue.

Swelling

My leg is swollen, but not as bad as it was yesterday morning. I think laying in bed all day helped. Whenever I sat at the desk to do some work for my former boss, I propped it up on the edge of the desk. My foot fell asleep more times than I can count, but it seems to have helped.

Picture of legs with stiches and bruising.

Finally got downstairs and out into the yard for a few minutes. The mosquitoes are still swarming. We got 1/4" of rain over the past 2 days. Most of that was on Wednesday afternoon. We've got better chances today and tomorrow. It's currently 74 degrees, cloudy, and the humidity stands at 97%.

Another new rudbeckia has bloomed. This one is about 5" across.



The first moonvine flower. I missed it last night, but I smelt it. :)



My hairy balls are blooming. Gomphocarpus physocarpus - a milkweed.

From my window

It looks like a nice day outside. It's 80 degrees and mostly sunny now. Hazy and cloudy all morning. Chance of rain this evening.

Yesterday I awoke around 5pm (I think) to find it pouring rain. I rolled back over and went back to sleep.

Sounds like a good plan for the rest of the day too.

Stupid rock.

Here's the little guy that caused me so much trouble. It's about 4" across the longest side. See the pointy bits? One of those hit the bone.



Four stitches, 30 Lortab, and some antibiotics are going to make for a great weekend. I've been excused from work til Monday. I'm trying to stay off my feet entirely. It's going to drive me insane.



Carla came over this morning and took me to get my scripts filled and turn in my note at work. I bought some groceries too. I normally don't eat a lot of microwaveable food, but this week is an exception. I also got some sandwich meats, cheese, and there are still fresh tomatoes in the garden. Cans of fruit rounded out the shopping experience.

The prescribed medication originally called for 7 Levaquin, one a day for a week. At $119 for those seven pills, I asked the pharmacist to call and ask for a generic. $4 at Wal-Mart was the final cost. The Lortab was just over $15 for 30 pills. It does help the pain, but I know already I need to save them for sleeping hours. At the emergency room, I took one while waiting on Carla. I took another about 1am. At 4am, I woke up in agony and took the two remaining pills. As soon as I had the bag in my hand at Wal-Mart, I took one more. It helps considerably. They are addictive, so I have to be careful.

When I went out this morning to find the rock, I noticed blooms on the lavender crape myrtle. So there's that.



It's 75 degrees. No rain in the forecast until late tonight. Rain all weekend though. Must be the hurricane.

You never know.

It started out like any other day. I made my coffee, walked the yard and took a few pictures. The morning glory on the chimney bloomed last night. Two blooms. It was supposed to be Heavenly Blue.



I found a new rudbeckia.



After a quick trip to Carla's for more gardenia cuttings, I potted up several rooted cuttings from the cloner and stuck more. These include Luna Red and Turn of the Century hibiscus, two vitex, an oak leaf hydrangea, and a few other odds and ends. The gardenia cuttings went into the cloner. It's still only half full.



Then I went out to the potager and pulled the rest of the corn, raked the soil and scattered seeds for collards and mustard. I really don't eat much of either, except in their raw form, but I need to grow something. Don't blame me, I don't make the rules.



I also pulled two rows of tomatoes that were done weeks ago. In their place, I planted the rooted cuttings of Beefsteak, Green Zebra, and Celebrity. Four of each, I set the sprinkler out. These were stuck on August 8.



Lots of roots.





I checked on the rest of my veggies and took a few more pictures. I also picked a few things.



Yellow pear, my favorite cherry sized tomato.



My bumper crop of beans. Yes, these are the only two so far this year.



My only pumpkin so far.



I still had about an hour before I needed to head inside to work on the drawings my former boss has asked me to do. I pulled the lawnmower out of the garage and set to work mowing the back yard. Less than 5 minutes into it, the mower kicked up a rock and I was bleeding. I crawled back to the house, wrapped the wound in a towel, and tried not to think of how hard it's going to be to walk on Thursday when I go back to work.

Three hours later, the bone is bruised, but not broken. The bleeding has stopped. I've got my leg elevated so the foot is asleep. I'm hungry. My harvest is still sitting downstairs on the table in the basement. *sigh*