I spent a few hours today in therapy. I don’t seek my therapy laying down on the couch of a shrink bemoaning my childhood and my neurosis-of-the-day . . . lately, I find my therapy outside, digging in the dirt adn planting things. I really have to force myself to get out there - - pry myself away from working in my office for an hour or two… but once I’m there, it’s hard to get me back in.
Today, I was outside so long, I’m actually a bit sunburnt. In April. In Wisconsin. Unheard of!
I planted azaleas, rhododendron and peonys. I also FINALLY got my hydrangeas in, after searching high and low for them. My usual local garden shop didnt have them. Neither did Home Depot. Menards came through, though - and I bought two huge ones.
Around the tree (picture above) I planted flowers that my daughter, Melissa, picked out because she likes their color. They’re called Celosia (Red Plume) and we planted 52 of them in a ring around a tree. They turned out to be a really beautiful splash of color.
At the end of my therapy session - I was so muddy, dirty and wet - I had to strip down in the garage before I would step foot into the house. Then made a beeline for the shower to wash off the grime and dirt. I felt like PigPen from the Peanuts - - but all in all, it was a great therapy session.
Lastly - we have a pond right outside the patio doors. It has this huge rock that has a filter running through it that cycles the water from the pond through the rock.. creating a waterfall down this huge rock into the pond. After a long winter, it needed cleaning out completely - so I gave that task to my son, Ben. He pumped all the old, brown stinky water out of the pond and then rinsed it all out and cleaned it well… then filled it up with sparkling clean water and turned the pump on. I love it because it’s right outside our bedroom.
Everything is perfect, except Ben left the hose hanging inside the pond. So, I tell him to get the hose outta there and put it back where it belongs.
“Why?”, he says.
“Because it doesn’t belong there”, I say.
“American troops in Iraq is a good example of things being where they don’t belong… and yet, there they are”, he responds.
“Ben - remove the damn hose”, I reply.
“I’m just sayin’”, he says, and walks off with a smirk.
Teenagers. They are getting more and more creative with ways of trying to get out of doing chores, aren’t they?
10:29 pm on April 26th, 2006
The flowers are beautiful! You know, I probably would have said something like that as a teen too…and my Mom would have had the same response.
11:07 pm on April 26th, 2006
Lovely. Very, very lovely.
I knew there were more reasons that we’re friends than just the ear-raping thing. I love “therapy”, too.
7:44 am on April 27th, 2006
If you need more therapy, my yard could use plenty of work…