Flowers in this Attic

There Was Once A Small Flower...

Tulip trees in the front yard

I know this might sound weird but I've come to the conclusion that stretching is tough for me because I can't physically relax.

I was wondering how I'm ever supposed to relax throughout the day other than when I lay down to go to bed? And now I am pregnant and that makes things more challenging.

I also really like to stretch while watching TV, you kind of relax without realizing it when you do that. They hold poses for 3-4 minutes and it really taught me how to relax and let go of my muscle tension. So with all that out of the way, does anyone have ways or tips on how to essentially force your body to relax? for example, when working on pancake, I extend my arms above my head and focus on my shoulder flexibility which allows my body to relax more in the hips. I generally try for 4 days a week if I can make the time and generally take around an hour.

It turns stretching into mediation and stretching for me. I've been stretching for a little over 6 months or so and have gotten next to no improvement. Try to localize the thought to the area itself, like you're pretending to feel the relaxation even though you're really not. At first, it would take like 3 minutes before I felt my muscle relax but as I went more often, it got easier and now I can consciously do it, but it took a little bit.

Now get to the point where you'd normally hold the stretch for a bit and focus on the feeling. Hold the stretch in a static position but try to remember the feeling of coming out of the stretch. Reciprocal Inhibition The only way I know to force it but it doesn't do the whole body at once. Now back off very slowly and focus on the feeling in the area you're stretching. Control your breathing and make sure you feel okay with the stretch and just in general.

If you're not relaxing into kyphosis, lordosis or forward head or anything terrible, you're fine to relax. This may be a dumb question, but how do you relax while trying to fix your posture?

You probably have a lot of tightness in your body and you need to get your muscles to relax via consistent stretching. You can relax your shoulders, it won't kill you.

This flower of mine

Motherhood Is Coming

I'm afraid I'll have mine, say it looks like a ugly little alien and laugh, and everyone else will think I'm terrible! :/ I'm afraid I'll be a bad parent because I'll hate other parents. I'm 7 weeks pregnant and I'm just kind of afraid in general. But I'm worried because I've met several mothers/have friends who absolutely hate their lives after having a baby. I was terrified that the responsibility and life change would SUCK and that I would hate being a mother, too.

It Is Strange

But here I am, though I still have fears, I'm much more connected to this baby and I'm much more excited.

I don't interact with many other parents but that doesn't mean I can't mother or my kids can't thrive.

I don't see anything wrong with it and will probably be one for awhile, but I'm worried about judgment. I'm being 100% honest with you here in saying that one aspect of being a mother is giving up some selfishness. What if I don't love my baby once he or she is born? Even if you don't think your baby is model good looking you will probably love it regardless. I suppose I'm comparing my thoughts and emotions to everyone else's "highlight reel" and getting down about it. Maybe this is a poor comparison, but you mentioned you have a dog - I'm guessing you love your pooch. I never bonded with my baby when I was pregnant with him - I had an anterior placenta and barely EVER felt him kick.

It took time to become happy about being pregnant but I can't say I was ever over the moon.

One of the best mothers I know compared being pregnant to having a parasite or alien growing in her.

I honestly was not happy about being a mother until I was 6 months along with my first. I kept the baby, even though I was afraid I wouldn't love it. I liked babies till I was pregnant then I couldn't care less about other people's kids.

I don't. I don't mind missing out on the party years, I'll have plenty of time and money to have fun when I'm 40 and my kid is in college. Then I felt him kick, I watched his dad fall in love way before me, and started getting used to being pregnant. I'm 31 weeks with my third now, and I haven't really wrapped my head around it all.

I'm not saying I don't want to have a child.

I feel like I'm losing my identity. I don't think a lot of women are that comfortable sharing their more negative or "weird" thoughts about pregnancy, but this is a safe place. I still never have and he's three now - but I know, KNOW that I love him with all my heart. I'm 8 weeks with my second, and I'm still in denial. I was happy about becoming a mother, but I also knew my life was going to change monumentally. Fears about labor, fears about babies and being a mom and the new life adjustments that I'll have to make. Even though I had seen countless red wiggly worm newborns, even though I had rolled my eyes at all the pictures. What the baby REALLY needs is a mother that is emotionally stable, taking care of herself, and is balanced in all aspects. But I just have to believe them, and I just have to believe that it will happen for me. I was getting ready to walk out of the door to go have drinks with the guy I was seeing when I found I was pregnant.

I thought it would be okay if I'm talking about my own kid.

And then later I remember feeling it creep up on me -- that feeling that this was going to be my daughter.

: I was worried that I wouldn't care because I never bonded with my son in the womb. Motherhood may suck for a while, since the first couple of months your baby eats, poops, sleeps, and cries. It really does help to get validation from someone who can listen to all the details objectively.

I have a feeling that once your little one is here you'll be overwhelmed with love.

Keep up with your hobbies, make time to go out with friends, read books that interest you and make you think. We women go through crazy emotional and hormonal changes when we're pregnant. I loved her as much as I had the first one, and she grew out of the goofy-newborn looks and is now an adorable toddler. But once she was firmly in my arms, and I was able to bond with her, I fell madly, deeply, hopelessly in love with her. Oh gawd, I've already started talk to my SO about plastic surgery for the baby if something is "deformed". My husband is over the moon and I just can't get over mourning all the freedom loss. .

It Wasn't My Dream Job

I work in the gardening industry, waterproof Keens the best investment I propagate plants too!

I had to stare closely at the photo for a good 10 seconds cause I thought it was where I work! I work in a green house and I must say that is a lovely house plant room! I work for a company that decorates with indoor plants, and you wouldn't believe the amount of perfectly good phalaenopsis and bromeliads I get to bring home. I'm really happy I work here. I used to sneak cuttings and seeds anyway, but I was often left to close up at night all by myself, so I had the opportunity. I was when I worked in private garden centers, but not at most big box stores. My entire yard got so full of plants that I had to start giving them away by the pickup truck load. I have a problem hahahhaga I got 3 giant ferns for a dollar last September at Lowes.

I cry every time I walk past the dumpster to see 5ft dracaena's frozen from the day before.

I love how the air plants are kinda just tossed in the basket Turn right to seeds, left to pots.

Oh today is my first day and I was tempted to go home with a boat load of plants but I had to resist. They're already loaded with new buds for this season I'm certainly no expert, but I view plants as pretty resilient. I think I have some root booster stuff kicking around the greenhouse somewhere, so I'll try that. Ugh I should've just taken them to my car and drove off, no one would've noticed and I could have rescued those poor trees. I used to give them away but everyone I gave them to killed them, how is a mystery. I love how the box stores don't have to pay the nursery who supplied the plants until a customer buys them. I work in a garden center in western PA. Oh man do I get multiple calls daily about when our tomatoes and the bulk of our later season flowers will be in. I'm very lucky to work for a place that allows me to give the left over flowers/plants away to my coworkers without any retaliation. I planted mine in September, so they had the whole fall and winter to establish their roots and I didn't bother pinching back the blooms in the first spring I had them. Lol When I worked in a garden center, I took home a shitton of plants they were throwing out, especially the bromeliads that were out of bloom. But I know that's why I love it. I wanna work in a garden.

I would love to work here. I'm pushing 70 and it's an awful lot of work what with a half acre garden and all of my houseplants.

I picture OP as a customer comes up and tries to buy a plant, crouching over it like gollum, back facing customer, growling "My precious!" I like to buy the markdown plants that go dormant in late fall, because they come right back up in the spring. I ordered from eBay today because I cannot hold it in any more! I did my whole garden for less than $30 last year, and half of that was fertilizer. I sowed about twenty varieties in February and I think they croaked. So I can't really take too large of clumps apart, because the nature of fairy gardens is to be small.

You'll put a lot of mileage on them and Happy feet make happy work. I work at an aquarium store.

I went to my local nursery last week and was crushed to see that all they had out was pansies. It can get to be a problem if you live where I used to live in South Florida. I was just watering some of my bulbs, getting them ready to go out on the patio tomorrow. I even offered to buy them for a discount but he just went away with them. Next time I see that I'm just picking them up and leaving With them. Show you can work hard, learn, and handle whatever is thrown at you and you will always have a job. And honestly I'm a cashier but I have high hopes of learning everything about the greenhouse and being apart of their greenhouse team. I don't understand, why plant flowers when you could plant fruit, vegetables and spices? I love it too. The big box stores I worked in wouldn't allow you to take plants home, but they would mark them down for you to outrageous prices. I'm up around Toronto and I just put out the first shipment of trees and shrubs yesterday.

I thought they were for sale so I asked how much and then the manager came to see and he laughed at me and said "oh those are going to the dumpster" so I asked if I could have them and he said "no". I love both plants and aquariums. They chilled in my house all winter till I could put them outside again. I guess my problem is that my job consists of lots of propagation of smaller plants that can be used for fairy gardens. It's a little cold today but I think it will be a busy weekend in the northeast. Best part is that it can be cold and awful outside and you get to walk into a place with PLANTS! I love in Indiana. Last year there was a similar pattern and I lost a great many self sowing plants. I can't tell you how much money that markdown rack has saved me. Be prepared to work very hard at a very physical job that is seasonal - it hits hard, you are in the weather constantly and you work your ass off. Yeah I work for Lowes in the garden center and I'm very up to date about the plant markdowns, if I find one I like that looks sad I'll take jt up to the register even if I'm on the clock and either hide it up there till break or buy it right then.

It's not even a contest, left to their own devices they'd grow over everything in the yard within 3 years. I spent three summers working in the garden department of a store. If you work hard, your love of plants will show through. I ended up with a gorgeous bromeliad garden in my yard.

However, I bought larger ones from lowes and they are loaded with blueberries. I want to go to there How did you get a job like this, this is one of my dream jobs at the moment! We just got about six inches of snow dumped on us this week so I think most people's head space is a bit behind still. I worked for a couple of summers post retirement in a similar nursery. Last year I lost perilla and digitalis which has never happened before ever. , especially perilla! I know we've taken loads of plants from different growers that are then counted after the fact so we can only be charged by what we sell. I try not to sow seeds into the ground direct until early to mid May, anything else is just started indoors, but I am pretty new to starting from seed thing. My best advice - Buy really good work shoes. I figure it was the prolonged early warmth followed by temps in the low teens. I always head straight for the markdown racks at Lowe's and WalMart.

I get awesome deals at 50-70-even 90% off. When I was little, my mom went back to school for a horticulture degree. I also have the issue of wanting to spend my pay on plants. My happy place too. I would take home more plants than pay. punching the flowers off sound like the MANLY way of gardening :-D You need to establish dominance early in the growth cycle. I ordered a few purple ones from Parks about 40 years ago. I have no doubt you will be working in the greenhouse soon! I already have a severe plant buying addiction. .


Life In Richmond

Virginia's  Wildlife

There may not be a lot of wolves in VA, but there are plenty left in the lower 48.

If it's a wolf, every news agency in VA will be interested. There are very few wolves left in the lower 48, and none of them are in VA.

There are extremely rare Red Wolves in certain parks in North Carolina , but if you killed one of those, I suggest you keep it to yourself. I have a smear of something on my bumper if somebody is that desperate for a DNA sample.

They are really well fed and seem larger than I remember and darker come to think of it. If there is a body it will be on southbound 81 between exit 137 and 132, likely much closer to 137.

In roanoke they literally roam the allies are night and eat rodents and trash and stuff. Wolves everywhere. They do run like that and like I said they are everywhere around sw va. People can't help what wild animal jumps out in front of their car at night.


My Secret Paradise

By the time I was collected enough to process what happened I was far away. At night you can leave your window open and listen to them run through your field in packs. I saw my white game of thrones dire wolf sized coyote off 64 in new kent.

I think the coyote-wolf hybrid mentioned on this thread could be likely.

They slink closer to the ground and are about the size of a coyote but stockier. 2 of them last sunday I think.

I'm pretty sure I just hit one on I–81 near Salem.

From what I have read, they cross breed with wolves and everything else. The wolf/canine was trying to cross from the median to the west side of 81. Why would you think wolf if it's smaller than a coyote? It seemed too to be a coyote. Saw the largest coyote ive ever seen and thought there was no way it could have just a coyote but everything i've read says there not here. My dad said it sounds like a coywolf Says at the bottom that it's fiction. It was a coyote. Too many trucks going too fast at night on 81.