Monday

 Woo.  It's been a busy day.  It started with getting up and then getting out after all the morning stuff.

Last week I spent an hour or so at church making decisions and pulling out all the things we would be using today.  That proved to be the biggest plus in a long while.  I arrived at church at 8:30 and moved all the banners to where they needed to be hung.  Other things were placed near their to be home during Lent.  

Kathy, Eric, Heidi and James arrived at 9 am.  They have been with me for quite a while so the need to explain what needed to happen was minimal.  And there were five busy, busy folks with Lent in mind knowing where things needed to go.  By 10 we were finished.  I call that a first in the history of preparing the church for the season of Lent.  Heidi and I made a final walk through and we were out of there!  There are a few new things in new places so the words, keeping things fresh coming from mentor Doris can be seen again. Lenten banners are everywhere and driftwood crosses from Lake Superior are found in the west lobby. Thistles sprayed purple are in vases near the altar.  The chest with locked away alleluias is in the narthex. The change is good. 

Then it was home with lunch at noon.  I had the urge to be outside and with clippers in hand the Lenten Roses all have been trimmed finding the flowers soon to emerge in the center of many clumps. It still looks a bit messy but in this case messy is good.  Most Lenten Roses are a deep purple with a few white ones mixed in.  One garbage can is full of Lenten clippings.  I moved on to work on the hibiscus causing a little more damage but with still a bit more promised to make the clump a bit smaller.  I uncovered a few places finding jonquils ready to show where they have spent the winter.  Many more have yet to emerge from where they were planted.  The chicken wire over the holly hocks and hens and chickens this winter have proven to keep them safe from the deer.  I put their protection barrier over them again.  

Doug spent some time using a light touch trimming the Bill/Kathy black berry plant.  It's an ongoing battle with me saying not so much and he saying I just trimmed the dead stuff. The day felt like a sandhill crane day and sure enough, Doug heard and saw them overhead.  There will be more crane day.  The bird kind of crane, that is.  

By then it was protein drink time with one tuckered gardener happy to take her place on the chair watching more stupid TV. It was a day to skip the Y.  My body said enough for Monday. 

I pulled a container of soup out of the freezer.  We've had a lot of soup this winter and Doug never complains.  Good husband.  We did an uber for Eric.  I knitted in the car after having a few days without.  And the evening is happening in the chair.  It's barely the beginning of spring and the old feeling of an aching body is back. It happens every year. So slow and easy with gardening that starts but stops sooner than I want to will be the goal. 

W