Shelter in Place, San Francisco, California

This view is about two thirds of the way from the shed to the house, and was taken this morning at the point where the two paths around our little “island” meet. Most of the plants and flowers you see from here have already made an appearance in this blog (dwarf Meyer lemon - foreground right; red bush rose - straight ahead; hydrangea - foreground left; aloe - foreground far left; bougainvillea - background; Angel trumpet - straight ahead; agapanthus - along the left side of the path; fountain - beneath the bougainvillea and obscured by an agapanthus bloom).

Getting back to this spot with bum hips, a camera, garden clippers, and my new kneeling pad in my arms, plus a love-starved cat circling my feet is more a shuffle than a walk, but that’s no excuse for not treading the wood-chipped path more often. I’d be in better shape if I did, and maybe I wouldn’t hurt so much (or maybe I’d hurt more, who knows?). I just read in the New York Times that the author David Sedaris walks an average of 130 miles a week… inside his apartment, for the most part. 130 miles! Inside a New York apartment! What opportunities I am wasting here in my ample - by those standards -San Francisco yard!

I’ve never been an enthusiastic walker even in the best of times and circumstances, and in these restricted days of the great pandemic, I consider myself quite virtuous if I walk around our only slightly slanted city block and up and down the stairs. But once I have the surgery (now re-scheduled to August), fingers crossed, I’ll be required to walk less than Sedaris but more than my current rate. Thank goodness for these garden paths!