I’ve been busybusybusy working in the garden. It’s shaping up beautifully. About 15-20 more bags of mulch are needed for the back, but the weeding, pruning, and planting are done (except for maintenance, of course. We have English Ivy and Euonymus and Japanese Holly, so I’ll be yanking up root runners forever.) I have moved so many shrubs, it’s not funny. The fish are already swimming excitedly to the surface of the pond when I come out – “Look!! It’s FOOD LADY!!!!” Gotta replant the aquatic plants and do some pond vacuuming this weekend, then it should be nothing but food and chemicals and filter rinsing, none of them particularly hard jobs.

My mom gave me four rose plants that are vigorous and fragrant (to combat the dog poop smell from the neighbors’ houses) (well, also because she loves roses and wants me to have some, too) and three of them were quite happy to go into the ground. Fragrant Cloud, though, began drooping almost immediately. I watered, I had filled the hole with the happy rose stuff mom gave me, but it looked like it was on death’s door. I figured I couldn’t make it worse, so I dug it back up and plopped it in a pot of water. Well. Less than 24 hours later, even the buds are standing up straight. Persnickety plant. I’m going to hit a garden center to get some soil amendments and replant it with some Soil Moist crystals, too.

So, anyway, that all relates to the title of this post because I’ve been very sore and stiff from all this garden work. That’s not a surprise, because I haven’t been using these muscles to this extent in ages. What is surprising, though, is how much harder it suddenly is to get up from the ground! Whether I’m kneeling, sitting, or crouching, getting upright is now a process instead of something I do without much thought. It doesn’t hurt, it’s just that it takes more of an effort to get a response from the muscles and change my balance as I get up. It happens in stages rather than in one smooth motion.

So, it’s not just gray hairs and wrinkles and hot flashes. Just another one of those things you kind of sort of know is coming with age that nevertheless takes you by surprise. I’m not bothered or upset about it, just observing it as part of the process. Because I’m not old, you know. Just getting older. And that is definitely better than not getting older.