Actually, three cool glasses of lemonade. Today was hot. I was up early to get some work done in my yard before it got too hot. I’m building planters, so I can complete the layout of my backyard as I designed it about five years ago. It’s been a slow work in progress, with a year off two years ago to landscape my front yard. But the end is in sight so I’m motivated to take advantage of my summer weekends and evenings by building planters, building a small retaining wall, leveling some dirt and sheet mulching to control the weeds. I made good progress today, continuing my morning work about 4 pm, when it started to cool down a bit. It was physical work, moving wood, digging dirt to level planter frames, dumping dirt and compost into a new planter, so I did get dehydrated.

I don’t use lemons a lot, but my neighbors gave me three lemons a few weeks ago, when I called and said I had some berries for them. We swapped over the back fence and the lemons have been sitting on my kitchen counter ever since. Today, they got used for my version of lemonade: one lemon, one tall glass of water and one teaspoon sugar. It makes for a refreshing drink and was a great way to rehydrate myself over the past few hours. Plus, I feel good about making significant progress on my yard. I could learn to like lemons.