Life's a Stitch

And more recently life’s a creative adventure with some travel thrown in.

We get weekly visits from a cardiac rehab nurse. Nurse Jane, affectionately known in our house as the heart gestapo, comes equipped with a portable ECG, blood pressure cuff and a wealth of knowledge. We bombard her with questions, can he do this, can he eat that… Today he asked if he could dig in the garden. She said no, with a helpful explanation about how he has to build a healthy scar on his heart by resting for four weeks, the only exception being the cardiac rehab walking program.

I caught him in the garden with a mysterious amount of dirt missing from the left side of a large tree planter he had built. I say "I thought you weren’t supposed to be digging." He replies, I wasn’t digging. I was only moving dirt with a shovel." What am I missing here? Is that the same as "I’m not knitting, I’m just wrapping string on sticks?" What I really wanted to say was "If you’re not careful, maybe you’ll move enough dirt for a grave."

Dsc01978 I’m the guilty party, though, as he was building the planter for my early Mother’s Day gift. It’s a weeping Katsura tree that was a royal hassle to get, but was a real bargain. Apologies to Dave, our dear friend, who had to drive twice to Langley to pick up the correct tree for us, and his son, Jeff, who accompanied me on a wild goose chase to try to find a large enough planter. Silly me wanted to put it in a planter in case we ever move. I’ve see the price tag on mature versions of this tree and it’s going with me no matter what. It’s a good thing my daughter has a forklift operator’s license.

You know how Sandy is about skies? I’m that way about trees. I’ve noticed pretty tree pictures recently at Knitting Iris (May 2nd post) and over at Lynne’s (whose garden always looks like a Thomas Kinkaid painting). So, if you have any trees to show me, I’d love to see them.

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7 responses to “Just moving dirt with a shovel”

  1. Dorothy Avatar

    Sounds like Chuck is on the mend if he’s flouting the heart gestapo! It reminds me of the time that I admonished my 3 year old for running in the house. He replied, “I’m not running – I’m skipping.”

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  2. monica Avatar

    I feel the same way about the Japanese Red Maple and the Paperbark Maple.

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  3. Kristen Avatar

    Keep your eye on that master of Doublespeak!

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  4. Karen Avatar

    Oh boy, you are going to have your hands full with with Mr. Chuck! 🙂

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  5. sherry Avatar

    Hi Li,
    love your analogy about sticks and strings.Just dump a bunch of yarn on him, so he can’t get up!!!

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  6. Jenny Avatar
    Jenny

    There’s gotta be a name for that type of personality.
    I had a next-door neighbor, in his late 80’s, who would climb trees for trimmimg, climb ladders, and even get up on the roof of his house! I could not wash dishes when he was up on his roof, which I could clearly see in front of me when I was at my kitchen sink, because I didn’t want to see if he fell! I often felt sorry for his wife, because I felt stress, and I wasn’t even married to him!!
    Now, my dad is the one! He will be 91 in August, and I just took him out last weekend to buy a new truck! He lives alone in an apartment, and won’t answer the phone to let us know he is alright. He drives to the grocery store, and across big highways to his Dr.
    He is stubborn. My brother and I wonder when the day will finally come that he will agree to settle down and stop worrying us! Every winter we think he will finally give up driving, but now he has a new truck!
    You can imagine the looks and increduality in the showroom while we were looking and buying the truck!
    My brother and I think that if it were my mom still alive, she would be meek and not worry us!
    Good luck…I think you will need to develop nerves of steel!
    Wow, a forklift license!! You go girl! My daughter doesn’t even have a regular license, and probably never will. Oh, wait, I just remembered that my sister did not learn to drive until she was 41! Maybe there’s a chance after all, haha!

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  7. Lorette Avatar

    Maybe you should teach him how to knit. In his defense, he is probably going bonkers not being able to do stuff that he wants to do. Been there, done that, not fun.

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