I haven't walked at night for 3 days but plan to tonight. It's too easy to fall out of a good habit. No rain, at least.

While others have been growing plants, I was busy killing them. Yesterday I finally tackled the foot-high weeds I'd been ignoring in the side yard. These I snipped and ripped out by hand and stuffed into many garbage bags. I alternated doing this (kneeling and stooping) with standing and chopping limbs off the monster flowering bush that grows around 3 feet each summer. I've now got that bush down to a manageable size for the winter, but still have more weeds to eliminate before I can put plastic & mulch down. There are 2 rock walls and one of them I have to really work on to get all the vines off, using scissors sometimes, so the rocks don't get pushed by the growth and start coming loose again.

And I'll need to put down some of that powdered poison that kills japanese beetle grubs. The last couple of years, they've eaten the flowering bush, the rosebush and all other leafy plants to rags. The stink bugs do a lot of it too.

A lot of work, but it's only keeping back the chaos. My yard looks kind of awful now since everything's drying out and grass is turning brown. Even so, it's gratifying to see a couple of areas brought under control. Today my shoulders, neck, back and knees ache mightily.