Eight more days of summer...

I had such good intentions of posting a bit more regularly at the beginning of September, and now here it is half-way through the month, and I have been waylaid from that good plan. 

Shortly after I posted my last post, I ended up getting a whopper of a sore neck.  I reviewed my activities leading up to that point, and honestly, I don't know which or if all of the things I did put my upper shoulder and neck in a bad spot.

The day after my last post, I started out feeling fine, but I had a dental appointment in the late morning, and oh my goodness...  I spent way too long in the chair.  At one point, I asked to be put upright so I could give my back a break.  The thing is, as much as my back hurt then, it didn't hurt in the spot that later flared up.

 

Picture of dentist tools taken earlier in the year when I was getting a root canal

Two days after being in the dentist's chair, I found myself in my dermatologist's chair getting a spot removed from the side of my nose.  My back hurt then too - but, again, not exactly in the place I was later sore in. 

It was later that week I finished up the baskets I showed in my last post.  At no time while I was crocheting those did I feel sore, but sometime the week after my last post is when I got the worst pain in the neck I think I've ever had.  

Then I remembered...  over the course of the week before my sore neck took hold, we had some beautiful weather.  I took advantage of the reprieve from summer heat to take care of some late summer garden chores.  

Those chores may show up in a bit more detail in future posts, but to keep this post from become a total monster, here is the Reader's Digest version...

First, I started pulling green beans plants.  In retrospect, that decision was possibly a little premature, but they weren't producing as prolifically, and I had grown weary of watering them nearly daily.  I also wasn't crazy about the Kentucky Wonder green beans - more on that in another post, possibly.  I simply didn't want to can any more of them.  I was ready to be done.

All but one trellis of green beans were pulled and carried over to the fire pit where I painstakingly unwinded twisted vines from rusty wire.  A tedious, but oddly satisfying job.  

This actually happened over the course of two days as I had the time.

I think it was a completely different day that I decided to start pulling out no-longer-producing tomato plants. The roots were surprisingly long, and it took a fair bit of pulling to clear the garden of most of the 25 tomatoes I had planted in May.  I then tried to dig around and wrangle the wooden stakes loose before I finally cried "uncle" and asked hubs if he could get them out.  It was hard work for him, but compared to my struggle, he made it look like a piece of cake.

There were 8 tomato plants left with still ripening fruit when I finished pulling those first ones out.

The day of tomato plant pulling, I also trimmed or entirely removed things that had become infected with powdery mildew (zinnias, yellow squash, fading zucchini plants...)  Anything with powdery mildew got bagged and taken to the curb. 

In some of the newly opened spaces, I planted cucumbers, kohlrabi, cabbage, pok choy, radishes and zucchini.  A fall garden is a total experiment for me. I'm guessing because the nights are cooler, and the angle of the sun is already more southerly in the sky, the plants may grow at a slower rate.

And add to all of the above, I also thinned out the strawberry patch. That involved a lot of bending over, bending forward, getting up and down from my knees... Exhausted at the end of that, I raked the refuse up and bagged it for trash collection.

I would have blamed any one of those things if my sore neck had followed directly on the heels of them, but the pain seemed to come days after I was finished with all of that work. 

Ibuprofen and Tylenol were of little help.  Hubs gave me deep massages where I could point out knots; I spent hours with a heating pad around my shoulder and neck.  I'd start feeling a little better, then it would come back with a vengeance and a headache that radiated up from sore muscles - usually at the end of the day.

After at least a week of that, finally desperate for some lasting relief, I called and got an appointment with my GP, hoping she'd write me a prescription for a muscle relaxant.  And then the very next day (the day of the appointment) I woke up with a much improved neck.  Not perfect, but not nearly as sore.  I had been able to turn over in bed the night before without yelping with each little movement.  There was still a remnant of pain in the morning, but I woke up with a motivation I hadn't felt for over a week.   

I cancelled my doctor appointment.

This calling the doctor, and suddenly feeling better is not the most satisfying of treatments, but it does seem effective.  Nearly every time.  Am I the only one for whom this is true? 

I realize my injury is surely healing itself slowly, and knowing that, I try to patiently wait it out - looking online for things to help me feel better, and reading opinions about how soon to call a doctor.  Here's the thing...  it doesn't seem to matter whether I call as soon as I feel it's legitimate to do so, or if I wait a week or two beyond that, the result is almost always the same...   I don't call until I'm desperate for pain relief, and I almost always feel better within hours of getting an appointment with a doctor.  It's frustrating and greatly relieving at the same time.  

It feels like a phenomenon that should have a name.  

I'm back to crocheting and knitting and have a little progress to show on Sunday.  Today is the first time I've been on the computer in nearly two weeks.  I'm cooking and grocery shopping again, and I'm toying with pickling the most recently harvested banana peppers this weekend.

What's left of my 25 tomatoes plants are looking shrively and brown, some green tomatoes hanging on have me wondering if they will ever ripen.  I'm still picking sweet peppers, and cherry tomatoes, and enough green beans off of the last lonely trellis to serve them up once a week.

My once lovely garden looks sad now, but I'm so thankful for the strength it gave my body as I worked it, and, in the end, the speed at which it helped the summer to fly by.  A few weeks ago, I thought I'd be sad to see summer end this year, but as normal, I'm already eagerly anticipating autumn.

And look what just arrived in the mail!   

I'm going to wait until our heat is passed (it's supposed to be 90 degrees tomorrow!), but I am sooo looking forward to getting this German Extra Hardy hardneck garlic in the ground and trying to grow these new-to-me leafy greens.

Just eight more days of summer!