I Don't Need This

On Saturday I went to the farm and did a bit of slashing down the back in an area that had been badly neglected for a year or two. A black wattle tree had fallen leaving an area hard to get at by anyone cutting grass, so my main man Gord had not done there, and I had forgotten about it.

I was not there long, maybe an hour with the metal blade on the whipper and I got most of the rampant blackberries. There are plenty of blackberries down there in other places so don't have the idea I'm caught up with the maintenance, there are some useless trees and shrubs that need removing and the blackberries keep coming.

I was there long enough to strain my ankle on the unlevel ground, not badly, but enough to cause me discomfort that evening. Sunday I was on duty in the museum, and decided to drop in to Hanna's on my way home, to see what needed doing there, and dig a bit of garlic which I should have done two weeks ago as some of the tops have died off too much and shriveled away. I must have aggravated the ankle as it was worse last night.

Then this morning I could hardly walk on it, the pain was severe. I had told Hanna that I'd come back this morning and tidy up with the whipper around my growing plot which does look a hell of a mess, and I didn't want to let her down, and I wanted to dig the rest of the garlic.

The phone rang on cue, it was Elvie asking me to bring a bucket of chinese lanterns for the Herb and Spice people. I told her my predicament and asked her to tell the foliage wholesaler if he wanted beech today I may not be able to do it as I can barely walk.

Luckily Lib was home and she strapped my ankle with adhesive bandage and I dosed up on the panadeine as well as my normal cortisone. With my boots on over the bandage I could hobble about and I hobbled about whippysnipping at Hanna's while Lib dug the garlic. Good job she did too and she helped my pick the lanterns at another place also. When I arrived at the farm I wasn't feeling too bad, so down the back I went to pick copper beech that wasn't too hard to get, where we hadn't yet cut this year, as until I did the cutting on Saturday you could hardly get to he back of a couple of nice young trees. Jod picked this up with the quad bike and took it up while I started on some green beech for the other wholesaler who had already put in an order for Wednesday. I didn't think I could do it tomorrow as I have meetings all afternoon to do with the museum and Nobelius Park.

Jod came back and helped me and we got it done. I can hardly walk on it again now. I took the bandage off in the bath and the poor old ankle is really stabbing with pain when I put weight on it. God knows what it'll be like in the morning. I'm going to take painkillers now and go to bed.

Lib is home again tomorrow and will strap it again.

You probably don't want to hear this tale of woe. I'm reading a book at he moment  called, 'Man's Search for Meaning', written by a psychiatrist who was a holocaust survivor of Auschwitz. He says enduring suffering to enable purposeful action gives existential meaning, and pain and suffering can give meaning itself, in it's endurance. That probably needs tidying up but I want to get this posted before midnight and be in bed. I'll talk more about this book another time.