mugged by a fig tree

MJ and I usually get together on Wed. mornings and sew.  MJ has a fig tree which I greatly admire.  Before we started sewing, we checked out her fig tree to see how things have been getting along.  The last spell of hot weather has been productive!  We picked the low-hanging fruit. Then we started bending branches down to get the figs that were just out of reach.  Of course, the biggest, bestest figs were on the side of the  tree hanging over the wall with a three foot drop down to the driveway.  MJ weighs about 90lbs with rocks in her pocket and is a petite gymnast type in wonderful shape.  I'm tall and sedentary.  MJ would pull limbs down, and I would reach up and pick the fruit.  So, right on the edge of the wall, MJ leapt up, grabbed a limb while I reached out to grab those big glorious figs, and - well, I guess the tree resented our depredations. I remember hearing a loud crack.I remember feeling a blow on the back of my neck.  I remember the gravel driveway coming up at my face.  Then I remember being flat on my back, rolling to a sitting position and saying, "I'm ok."


The limb broke and split clear down the trunk.  MJ landed lithely on her feet amidst the foliage.  I was off balance anyway, and a branch caught me and pulled me head-down over the wall.  Thank God for judo classes in high school!  I  have gravel rash on the side of my left wrist and left elbow, and a sore spot on the top of my left shoulder. (Also a bruise on the back of my neck where the tree hit me.) Evidently I took a left-handed roll.  I think I broke my big toe on that side - heaven alone knows how, and I pulled something in my right calf.   But with the adrenalin and the endorphins, I felt nothing at the time.  After making sure that neither of us were bleeding or had bone sticking out, we decided to gather the rest of the ripe figs on the branch, then drag the branch out of the driveway.  Then we went on with our sewing.

Miss Fang, MJ's kitty, was somewhat annoyed that we chose to use her bed for our laying-outarea, but she condescended to help us when we asked nicely.  We finished the quilt, and next week we will tie it, and start planning the next one.  And as we worked, we discussed the concepts of meaning and communication and how it is possible to have one without the other.

Today I am laid up and gimpy.  I am resting hard, because the Flock and Fiber Fest is this weekend and by Sunday afternoon, I have got to be able to walk around to every single vendor! As always, when my big market basket is full, I have to quit shopping, but yarn is squishy, and that basket holds a LOT.  And I can always wrap skeins around my neck or my hat to make more room in the basket.  Wish me speedy healing!

PS, 

DH and I stopped by a fruit stand on the way back from breakfast (After making him work last weekend, his company is now giving him today and tomorrow off.  Another case of crisis by management.) And bought two pints of fresh figs.  I get my revenge.   And, as I'm limping around on my gimpy foot, DH found and purchased a watermelon. "I had to. It's the right one for you.  Look at the label."  It was a Wapato melon.  Wop-a-toe.  I do LOVE that man!