Planting Paranoia

I was working in the garden this morning and I tell you what---I had more heart stopping, more breath catching, and more near slips than I've had in a loooong time.

I started out planting two pots of flowers in the side garden. I was out there in flip flops, not quite the right apparel when using a shovel but I made do alright. However, the jeans were quickly rolled up due to the amount of mud I was getting all over my feet. I can only imagine that it was my father who soaked that planter the night before, thinking that softening up the ground would be a help to me. Well, it went soft alright, about a FOOT DEEP! I placed one foot on the shovel to begin digging my hole and placed the other foot as a brace on the ground ONLY to nearly slip in the mud and land face first in the squishy mess. There I stood, two feet planted on a shovel that was slowly sinking into the earth. After pulling up the first few shovel fulls I decided to reposition and come around from the back to widen the hole. Despite walking gently on the questionable slippery surface I nearly did another back flip when my flip flop went sliding into the mud. You can only imagine how many looks I was throwing over my shoulder to see if there were any early morning walkers out and about that might have seen that slip up. It's not like they were few and far between. Pahhhh!

After finishing up that planter I moved onto another area of the garden. One less muddy. I had just turned my back to the street and was just about to squat down and throw my hands into the soil when out of nowhere came a horrendous crashing sound that stopped my heart and threw me into a backwards spin to see WHAT was coming up behind me! I know my eyes were huge saucers and I had a look of panic on my face. Nothing to fear, it was only my neighbor dumping all of his GLASS bottles into his empty recycling bin. Talk about a scare! I nearly yelled at him but swallowed my fear. LOL!

THEN, as if my morning in the garden could get any more exciting, I was pulling some flowering plants out of their little cups when I felt something touch my hand. The leaves on the little plant were covering my hand so I had no idea what it was that was touching me, and all I could think about was some freak insect clamping onto my hand.........and I freaked out! I gasped as I immediately pulled my hand back---only to find that it was a little twig from the soil that had brushed past my hand. I think my imagination was on overdrive.

Oh what fun I have.