my Stockholm knee

It was cold, but it stayed just above the freezing mark overnight. Still, it was very cold. Stepping out in the morning, I felt that winter chill of an early walk to the barn.

Feed animals, get kitchen in order, cut up fruits for the populace (for kids, for Ed, for me), shout a "see you later" to Ed and I'm off. I have my appointment with the doc who replaced my left knee a year and a half ago. He is to do an assessment of my right knee now. 

That knee had been the marvel of strength, needing no intervention at all. Beautifully functional, never giving any sign of trouble. Until my big daylong walk through Stockholm. It decided then and there to show its true aged face (does a knee have a face?) and it has been wobbly ever since. Today, my doc and I consult. The big question is: do the replacement of my Stockholm knee now, or try some tricks first to forestall its deterioration. 

Typically I do not wait. I move forward quickly and put things behind me. A replaced knee would be huge bother for a year, but it would then give me a trouble-free existence til my deathbed. And yet, a fake knee never fully bends. A fake knee takes a chunk out of your life as you tote ice machines and do endless exercises to get it to work in the way that it should. 

So I opt to wait. To medicate, to do therapy, to stall for more time. I dont want to give over another year to healing right now. And so I say -- see you later doc and please dont retire. He promised me he wont. Not in the next decade anyway.

 

Breakfast is very late, but oh is it worth the wait! I stop over at Madison Sourdough to stock up on stuff including on these:

 

 

Honestly, they are up there with the ones in Perros-Guirec. Indeed, better, I think, than the one from the bakery by the port! 

All I have time today is for 30 bulbs to (sort of) go in. And it's a struggle. Ground hard as a rock. You know how they're supposed to go into the ground about 6 inches, measured from the bulb tip? Ha ha ha. Predominantly clay soil, without rain, turns into solid clay. The chickens watch me chip away at it and then proceed to undo my diggings, thinking perhaps that I am there just to loosen things up for them a bit. A frustrating final act of the gardening season. And not so final -- I finished the daffodils and have done none of the tulips, allium etc yet. Sigh,..

 

And then -- off to school to pick up the kids.

(look who else is attending their school??)

It's not a straightforward return today, as Snowdrop has Girl Scouts. But eventually everyone is where they should be and importantly, I am on the couch once more, still working to get back to some level of strength appropriate for a sprotive senior who is just getting over pneumonia.

One big cold snap tonight. Such a good word -- snap! The frost will definitely snap shut the gardens at the farmette. And maybe that's a good thing...

with love...