Blind Gardening. Birthday Gratitude.

Recently I was asked how I garden.  Pictured below are the tools that help me garden blindly. My gloves! I wear a glove on my left hand only - to protect my wedding ring. My right hand I leave free so I can feel the texture of the flowers and weeds. Sometimes I can't find the left hand glove so I use a right handed one on my left hand... soon it becomes a left handed one!  We've giggled over this many times.  System. I start on one end of the yard and work my way around weeding all the flower beds. If I can't finish it all, I leave my little rake and cutters at the place I am working on. Although I know my yard layout in detail in my head, I have started to use a cane more around the yard this year with further vision decrease. It is easy to get thinking and lose track of where I am at in the yard. Also for stairs and it is a good identifier for people to  know why I didn't wave or say hi when they were right by the side of me! Cricket cheers me on and stays close by. She knows it is gardening time and gets excited when I put some kibble in my pocket.  We both enjoy our morning routine to water all the flower pots with our watering pail. 

Also, I try to keep all the tools in a little gardening carrier.  Without this system, it can take  hours, searching for that missing rake or cutters or gloves.  We have several gloves, rakes, cutters, for this reason!  If I get called away, I leave them in the flower beds so that the person mowing the lawn won't find the unexpected tool.  Love my mint plant.  Plants with a scent are a great orientation to an area. Wish Item:  Fountain for the back flowerbed.  Sound is another helpful orientation. 

Gardening brings me much peace and grounding, and I love that Cricket also enjoys being close by and cheering  me on in the process.  We also wear a hat (loving my hat from Lucent Imagery ) and make sure now, we put in our eye drops to help these dry eyes not hurt in our passion.  I quit mowing the lawn a few years ago.   There is a system for mowing the lawn, however, for me the challenge became the combination of the loud lawnmower and another sense gone.

  

Thank you for your sweet birthday wishes for Cricket, visits, those that came to our party, and your generosity to support Guide Dogs for the Blind.  Truly incredible, and we are so happy that we will be able to send off enough for a new harness for a guide dog team! So sad, that I wandered around the yard with my camera in my pocket and didn't get any pictures of  Cricket with adorable puppies in training Sloan or Cobb.  Hopefully, we'll get another visit, soon.  

It is sunny, warm and beautiful here today.  We enjoyed a nice brisk walk this  morning with my sweet, now 6-year-old guide dog.  Hope you've had a nice weekend.