Dear Diary ...

The weather has been cool (enough to wear a tracky top most of the day), cloudy, windy and raining over the last few days, which is very unseasonal here. November is usually dry and hot. There is a lot of hay still on the ground, so that is not a happy story. The mature grain crops may sprout in the head, which is not a good story either. The snakes and other creepy crawlies that hide under rocks and in dry grass will be asleep in cosy places and not likely to react badly to being discovered. An ideal day for some hard yakka.

Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to work we go. Time to lay a house brick garden border, width 9inches, one brick long, laid side by side. Quite a bit of spade work, clearing the grass and levelling a strip for the garden border, about 20 metres. Lots of brick carting, in WW posture, two by two, balanced on my upturned hands held next to my shoulders (saves the wrists). Lots of bending (hip hingeing) , lots of working on knees and one hand, working with the other hand.

Result? One beautiful brick border.

Planted some geranium cuttings and set up the reticulation hoses and fittings to water them.

Finished. No snakes.

Lawn looking pretty raggy and long. Off to mow it, using my petrol powered rotary mower. Hard to get through the thickest bits. Hip hinge so the pelvis is way forward, torso horizontal, arms straight and same height as the handle.

No POP symptoms all day.

Off to the spa to untangle my sore body. While in the spa I discovered that I could do lots of stretches, by bracing my feet in different spots in the spa. This enabled me to extend all the muscles that had been flexing all day, and to use (contract) all the muscles that had been stretching out all day. By being mostly in the water I had the assistance of weightlessness, so I didn't have to concern myself too much with overbalancing. I also used the hydrotherapy jets to give my shoulders and back, and buttocks a bit of a pummel. It was amazing how many of the exercises off the yoga DVD's I could do while weightless. I wouldn't do them in the spa all the time because the body's behaviour while weight bearing is part of the design of our pelvic support system. I was kind of cheating, but it did give me something useful to do while I was wallowing around feeling tired. The worst bit was getting from the warm water to my towel in the cool breeze! Brrrrr!

I am still stiff and sore, but I feel refreshed. I think tomorrow will be a brain work day, and let my body have a little rest. It is now beer o'clock. Cheers!

Louise