The day before I got a call about Mr. Ink’s mom, I picked up a refurbished and now no longer made fitness tracker. I figured it might be fun to see my steps and it might also get me up and moving on the days I am not biking. But, then, I spent a bunch of time in the hospital, which really isn’t conducive to movement at all, especially if you may miss something important when you leave the room. And you are the only person there to hear it and help make decisions.

So, I took to sneaking out when Mr. Ink’s mom had asked for pain relief, knowing she would then sleep. The hospital she chose is just beautiful and on a beautiful campus. And right now? All the trees are in bloom. So I’d take a walk around the hospital, each time around gave me 2,000 steps.

And during those steps, I’d get to see such beautiful things!

Beautiful things along with the parking lots.

I went in yesterday to see her after blogging. I figured she won’t be at this hospital much longer, so I won’t get to take advantage of that lovely walk much longer. So I walked again before I even went in. Once in the hospital, I was VERY encouraged to see her up in a recliner, eating healthily, with beautiful color in her face. And chatty! She was very chatty. I was there for the orthopedist visit, where he told us surgery had gone just as well as possibly could be expected, and now the onus was on her to have a good recovery. It’s a long one, 3 months before she’ll be back to weight bearing on that hip. But seeing her up and in a chair already was so encouraging.

Now, this is a woman who has lived entirely by herself for the last 12 years, not really having visitors so often, and not driving, so unable to take herself out. We would see her when she needed to go to the store or the dentist or whatever, and we’d make sure she had a place to visit on holidays, but as a rule, she was alone. I had been thinking the day before that it must be SO overwhelming to go from that normal to the hospital normal where you’ve got people talking to you all day. So, when she told me I could leave any time, after having a lovely chat with her, I took that as her cue that she needed some alone time and stepped out. And took another walk around the hospital.

Being home most of the day yesterday was lovely! I got the house back in a reasonable order, and got some knitting done. Look at my hanami! I am well within the cherry blossom section now!

I am still knitting away on this every chance I get, and it’s still fun! I can’t wait to see it blocked.

We were also able to get a bike ride in, and mow the lawn, and I gardened. And, feeling quite indulgent, we also stayed up late, watched a movie, and made a nice dinner. It’s our last alone day in our home after all. At the end of the day? I had over 20K steps! That was so fun!

And all that gardening made me realize we’ve got our very first iris of the season blooming!

It was twilight when I snapped that photo. I’d been trying to pick that henbit out of the nearby ferns, a really irritating job. And then I realized there was a gorgeous bloom right in front of my nose and I hadn’t taken the time to notice it yet! That felt like a lovely end to the day.