Changes of Scenery

It's been quite some time now -well over a month - since I did any walking. If you recall, from December through July, I had been walking with Sammy, my little dog, almost daily and some of those walk were pretty long ones at that.

After I came home from the hospital, for the first week I was home, walking was a bit out of the question since I was really tethered to the house, how far I could move around here, based on where there were places then that I could hang the lovely catheter bag. Unfortunately, that was during that time span, a necessity and one I had to just accept for what it was then and get over it.

But finally, when I returned to Pittsburgh to get the staples removed, they also were able to remove the lovely (or not so much so) catheter then too -a move that really made me quite happy and gave me a whole lot more freedom then too.

However, I guess this surgery -with it involving three different things -sapped a lot more of my energy and strength than I realized because just walking around the house at times had me often feeling really drained. Then I started having days when I just wanted to do nothing all day -and all night too -but sleep, sleep and then, sleep some more.

Because of that, I realized my legs just were not up to walking yet. I didn't have that much strength available to utilize. I already knew I wasn't up to walking the dog as yet because even though he is a small mutt, he is also very strong and when you walk him it is more like he leads, he walks -or rather at times -he PULLS you along. The nice thing about that is that when walking Sammy one can usually set a pretty good pace but right now, I knew I wasn't yet up to walking at those speeds either. That, plus the fact, he likes to run -to take off and let the leash out to the fullest which then, when he reaches the end of that, would end up jerking me and I really didn't want to deal with that as I knew I just didn't yet have the strength I would need to control him.

A little over a week ago, I did go on two relatively short walks with Mandy -nothing of any major distance or anything -just a little ways along our street to try to get my walking legs functioning a little bit again.

Today though, I decided I felt strong enough to go for a stroll -a little longer than just up and down this street (but without the dog still) so off I went, camera in hand again too, and decided to walk out one of the two nearby dirt roads to my home.

I walked out along what is known here as the Cooper Two Road -out to the foot of the hill where the mine reclamation had been taking place over the past year. I didn't take a whole lot of photos -just a couple out there and two along our street -mainly to show the latest changes of scenery around these hills.
These flowers were a new addition to the scenery along the Cooper Two Road since the last time I walked there back probably in mid-July. I have no clue as to what they are -they resemble, sort of, a daisy in color and shape, but they appear to be a bit more fragile than the daisies I'd seen blooming along the local roads earlier this summer.
The white flowers were almost exclusively along the north side of the road and these orange-shaded posies were all along the south side of the road. Again, I have no idea what these flowers are called but I just thought they were very pretty as well as quite colorful too.
On my return home, I stopped to take a picture of this bush, blooming in the front yard of my neighbor's home a few doors down the street from my place. This particular bush is one I'd noticed the past couple years in front of another neighbor's place up the street from my house and I'd asked him what it was called however, he didn't know the name of it. In the past month though, I saw another bush like this blossoming along the street going up the hill in town and as I am friends with the lady who lives there on Facebook, I'd asked her if she knew the name of it. Lucky for me, she did and she informed me it is called "Rose of Sharon." I like this bush so much -my neighbor up the street with two of these growing in his front yard, has one with white blossoms and the other with the lovely lavender/lilac shades too and I told Mandy some time in the future, I'd like to get one of each of these and transplant them along our house here someplace too. I just think they would make such a very pretty addition to the home lot.

But while I was looking at the bush in this picture, I noticed something else different at that location - sound I was hearing -and it sounded like water running or something. Finally, I realized that while I'd been recuperating, the family who lives there had added one of those circulating-type waterfall things and I was hearing the flow of that water clear up on the road. That got me to thinking too that although this wouldn't be all that great during day light hours but in the evening, would be really nice if they had some kind of Designers Fountain Lighting there to really highlight the waterfall, wouldn't it?

And finally, I really liked seeing the beautiful floral display along the handrail and steps going down to our friend and neighbor, Karen's place. I think these are probably morning glories but I've never seen them in this deep purple shade before so I could be wrong about calling them that.
Aren't they just glorious though?

I had my little pedometer hooked to my waistband today and according to it, I logged in 1.36 miles today. I thought that was a pretty respectable distance for my first really big venture out into the walking world again.

But as often happens to me now, and yes, I kind of figured this would be the case too so it wasn't all that big of a surprise to me, now my legs are a bit on the sore side -nothing drastic though -just a tad achy from not having been used like that very much for well over a month now.

But I think now I am really well on the road to recovery. I'll find out more about that tomorrow when I go back to Pittsburgh for my final post-surgery checkup so look for more details after I return home from that visit then!