The Perfect Way to Celebrate: Yard Work!

I am sore in strange ways this morning--no, we didn't do anything unusual to celebrate our anniversary, at least not in the direction that most people's minds might go.

We spent much of the daylight hours of our anniversary doing yard work.  I realize that may not sound romantic, but it was a good way to spend the day.  We were out in the sunshine, taking care of our property and our possessions.

Until three years ago when we moved to this neighborhood of many palm trees, I had no idea how many palm fronds fell from a tree in any given year--and how much damage they can do when they fall.  One of our motorcycles was parked underneath a tree with 2 or 3 palm fronds about to fall, and so we moved it to the back parking pad. 

While I was at spin class, my spouse took the motorcycles out for a ride.  He also sorted through all the planting pots we've collected through the last 3 years we've lived here.  We've bought a lot of shrubs and plants, and we've kept every pot after transplanting them to the yard.  Now, most of those pots are waiting to be picked up, either by the trash collectors or others who want them.

We trimmed the hedges--the older one that separates two properties in the front, and the ones that were just planted in the past month.  We hauled brush piles to the alley to be picked up this week.  We watered the plants that my spouse planted--bushes that have been waiting to be planted until the landscapers were done trimming all the gumbo limbo trees.

Much of the work has needed to be done for much of the summer, but we haven't done it for many reasons, mainly because we were waiting for landscapers and solar panel installers and pool pump people to finish their work.  It's good to get back to a measure of organization.

It's also good to get a source of standing water off the property.  My spouse was amazed at how much water we'd collected with our variety of buckets and pots.  The ones we're keeping are now in position so that they don't collect water--never let it be said that we didn't do our part to help eradicate mosquito habitat and control the spread of the Zika virus!

We ended the day by relaxing in the pool and then grilling a chicken breast and some cauliflower.  And then we went to bed early.

So, in many ways, it's not the anniversary celebration that most would choose:  no fancy meal out, no gifts--the only way it was different from any given Saturday was the dozen donuts that I got. 

And yet, it seemed the perfect way to celebrate:  both of us working on home maintenance and improvement projects, working together at a steady rate, enjoying the perfect summer weather.  We will not always be able to do this, after all.  And the older we get, the more I treasure the days when we can.