Spring Training

My very sports-minded DH said to me last night, "Your long layoff makes 'spring training' rough, huh?" Oh, yeah! Saturday's efforts in the garden rewarded me with very sore muscles in the backs of my thighs...the kind that you have to sit down on so gently or they yell at you. I'm still stiff now - two days later, and getting out of bed this morning caused a few groans. I'm not one for exercising, but I've been thinking about it. This aging business keeps coming up, doesn't it? Funny thing. I was telling a friend last week how nice the lady at Lowe's was for going back to get a great big bag of potting soil for me. She slung it up on her shoulder and away she went. "And she was an older woman," I said before realizing the truth. "Gee, she was probably younger than I am." My friend, two years my junior, quickly replied, "yeah, we forget we're not young anymore."

My point is not to be depressing but rather to remind everyone to be careful in the garden this spring. Lugging heavy bags of soil, digging holes, reaching awkwardly all can result in a wrenched back or twisted knee so easily. Watch where you step and how you step -- and how you lift. Stretching warm-ups probably would be a good idea. Perhaps start now walking regularly to get those muscles back in shape and the juices flowing again. Once we get out of shape it's harder to get back in shape, and the activities we never thought twice about may now get us in trouble. All is not lost though. Look at Jack LaLanne, who passed away today at 96. We can stay fit and able to do the gardening that we love. We just have to be smart about it. After all, one of the perks of aging is wisdom.

P.S. That's Duchesse de Brabant, a tea rose bred in France in 1857. How amazing that exactly the same rose grows in my garden in 2011.