As of this minute …

I have about six and a half hours before I need to be at work. We switched things up today, and I'm taking the afternoon shift. One of my co-workers was badly burned over the weekend and is still hospitalized, which means we're all pitching in a little more in different ways. I'll find out the extent of his injuries today.

Yesterday went well, until mid-afternoon, when my energy just completely ran out. I walked a little more than four miles with my husband early in the morning, then came back and tackled the garden from 9:30 until 2 p.m.

Of course not everything got done. My husband hauled mulch from the big pile on the other side of the yard, while I laid down cardboard around the rows and plants. I then piled the mulch on the cardboard in a (probably) futile attempt to keep the weeds at bay.

But by 2 o'clock I was, literally, spent. I collapsed in the grass next to the garden and ordered him to get me some WATER. Hungry, tired, dehydrated: I thought I was going to pass out. I made it back to the house, thinking I still had time to at least mow the front yard, but I ended up resting for a couple of hours.

Which was probably what I needed. My ambition exceeds my energy, and I need to remind myself that I am 62, after all, and I must learn to pace myself.

Next year's garden is going to be much smaller. Significantly smaller. Like, less than half what it is now. We're reclaiming the rest of it for lawn and I'm just going to have to be satisfied with less homegrown food.

And less work.

I think the latter will make up for the former.

P.S. I've updated yesterday's curry recipe to include servings. I usually eat a third of this for a serving, and my husband will eat the rest. If it were a published-in-a-magazine-or-on-the-web recipe, it would serve four.