Stretch...

Literal. Figurative.

Passiflora loefgrenii x caerulea

She's pretty, isn't she?  First time this passion vine has bloomed for me and I think she's stunning.  She has STRETCHED across the trellis in the Fairy Garden.  I smile because I also think she's stretched her roots across the planter and out into the walkway to give me a second plant.  I'm going to wait a while to make sure that's what it is before digging, though.

I went out this morning to spend a half-hour cutting flowers.  The time STRETCHED into considerably more when first I couldn't get the garden waste can out to the front.  The wisteria had STRETCHED down and wrapped itself through the chain link gate.  It wouldn't stay open long enough for me to wheel the can through.  So, I had to spend considerable time trimming the wisteria back.  I really had to STRETCH to reach the branches on top of the arbor.

Then, that chore completed and the now-half-full can out in the front, I had to do some doggy clean-up.  I will spare you the details of what he manages to STRETCH across several feet of front grass.

Cutting flowers is a pleasure right now, there are so many to choose from.  Roses, mostly.  The tortoises love to eat the petals of the flowers that I consider have STRETCHED out their time on the bush past their prime.  (Yeah, I know.  That one was kind of a STRETCH, wasn't it?)

I'm in the home STRETCH for school.  Five more days.  Yesterday was the graduation trip to Magic Mountain and I chaperoned.  I hope to get to my exercises to STRETCH my hip again and re-strengthen the muscle that is being thrown into chaos by my orthotics.  All it took was a walk across that facility (Yeah, it was uphill but still...) to kick the pain into full gear.  By the time my shift at the first aid station was over, it was all I could do to limp back to the front fountain, find a nice table and wait out the day until departure.  The 1/2 -mile walk back to the buses about did me in.  Next week will be very disrupted with grad practices, grades to put in and the classroom to shut down (lots of stuff to move into cupboards for the summer).

It's no STRETCH to declare that I don't think I've ever been so excited for a summer to begin.  I've already started planning the days.  I'm hoping to STRETCH my exercise time by at least five hours a week, including doing some walking (not on a treadmill - yesterday taught me they are not the same thing).  If I do that, I should be about to drop another 15-20 pounds (at the rate 1.5 pounds a week, about what I lose now if I keep on my diet and exercise program).  And if I do THAT, I can drop the next 20 and reach my goal of 100 pounds off by December 5, 2011.  December 5 is Walt Disney's birthday, and I have a date with a castmember photographer to take my portrait in front of the Christmas tree.  It would be very cool to have reached that milestone by then.

I'm also trying to decide what to STRETCH onto my stitchery q-snap bars for a summer project.  This piece?

Meadow Dance - Marjolein Bastin

 I've already done a few inches of that one.

Or maybe this one.  It's the newest chart in my collection.

Les Coprins des Fees - Nimue - ABC Stitch Therapy

This one seems like a natural, since my first grandson will be born this summer.

La Balancoire (The Swing) - Nimue - ABS Stitch Therapy

Just the tip of the iceberg of my stash, of course.  I've become an expert at STRETCHING the storage space around here.

Writing to do every day.  The garden to finish - actually hope for that.  Part of the garage to clean up, clean out.

Menus to plan.  There's no way I'm going to be able to make this diet a life plan - a forever plan - if I don't start pulling together some appropriate healthy meals to fall back on when the "chef" takes the day off (which is just about every day around here).  I'd like to have about two months worth of menus charted with recipes and shopping lists so that I can make sure to have all I need every week.

So much to do in so little time.

Anybody know how to STRETCH time?