Utter Exhaustion...

I am so tired.  My legs, arms, and lower back ache.  I might have a sunburn.  I could just sleep for hours.

But it's all in a good cause!  I have a job!!!!  I'm working in the garden of an old lady about a mile down the road, digging, weeding, doing all the heavy lifting.  Her garden is wonderful - occupying the whole of her back yard and a good portion of the front as well, she has orderly rows of irises - rows and rows and rows! - lines of day lilies, and a wonderful confusion of flowers, both annuals and perennials, in the middle.  She's been working on this garden for 30 years, she says; used to be she did all the work herself, but now she's getting older and can't handle bending and stooping, carrying heavy buckets and managing overflowing wheelbarrows.  So I have a job :)

I enjoy it.  It's not easy work - it involves a lot of bending, and quite a bit of hot sun.  My hands are almost-but-not-quite blistered from the clippers I used for nearly an hour.  I think I will permanently have dirt under my fingernails.  But it's satisfying to look along the garden and see straight paths, newly coated in grass clippings, and edged by tidy rows of lilies that one has trimmed back oneself; to cast an eye over the iris bed and see a notable absence of weed and dead leaves.  I think I'm going to enjoy this.

And, of course - apart from the sunburn, which I'm doing my best to combat with heavy coats of sunscreen - it's very healthy work!  Outdoors, fresh air, and lots of exercise!