Well, there I was thinking that gardening is a safe and easy way to pass the time, and I end up in the emergency ward at Westmead Hospital with a broken ankle.
The short version of the story is that I was doing some gardening at Pam's mother's townhouse, fixing up the mess of pots and plants on her ground-floor balcony. The last phase of the successful operation was to hose down the balcony, then return the hose back to the garden area behind her townhouse.
It was such a low balcony that the 60cm (2 feet) drop from the tiled floor onto the grass below presented no obvious dangers, and so off I jumped. My left foot landed on the soft green lawn perfectly, no problems. But my right foot landed right on top of a hidden concrete edging strip around the lawn. Suddenly a little 60cm drop felt like a plummet into the abyss. Ouch.
And pictured below, this is how my right ankle looked about four hours later, in the Emergency Ward.
The prognosis isn't too bad, but it doesn't involve any gardening. I need to have my leg in plaster, and my right leg comfortably elevated, for about six weeks. Then more X-Rays and I'll find out what comes next.
So, dear readers, following my long garden-blogging lay-off from late 2018 until just a month or so ago in 2020, and my brief re-appearance, I'm afraid there's going to be a short lay-off from gardening blogging at least until December, and perhaps until early 2021, depending on how things go.
All I can recommend is that no matter how small the drop, no matter how safe it looks, don't jump off any balconies whatsoever. I have learned my lesson the painful way. I am grounded!
