Wildflowers and shoulder setback

It's been a challenging week because of a big setback with my shoulder recovery combined with gloomy weather, but things started to turn around today. The black clouds finally lifted and I got out for a brisk hike with the Shady Ladies! Here's the view from my house this morning.

The desert wildflowers continue to spread their golden and blue blooms. We hiked the 50-Year-Trail in Catalina State Park and saw a lot of other hikers and horseback riders, making it sort of festive.

I spotted this little bud on a saguaro cactus. I'm not sure if it's the beginning of a new arm or something else. It's too early for saguaro flowers, plus they're usually up around the top of the cactus. The ocotillos (below) are getting their little green leaves so they no longer look like grey sticks.

My shoulder situation is that at PT on Monday, my therapist added some new exercises that really hurt, and by Tuesday morning I couldn't raise my injured arm at all. It was excruciatingly painful for the next three days to even try to lift a fork, and I was afraid I had done permanent damage. 

When I went back to PT yesterday, she said I didn't tear anything and that it was just a really sore muscle. So she said to back off on my daily home exercises except for stretching. That seems to have helped somewhat and today it's not quite as sore, but still not as good as it had been. I had finally, almost three months after surgery, been able to lift that arm enough to help shampoo my hair, but that's out of the question now. It helps that the sunshine is back. I was feeling pretty down earlier in the week with the clouds and drizzle and pain and my daughter and her fiancé having left and being alone again.

Tomorrow I'm going across town to the quilt shops for some color therapy. I'll report back if I find anything interesting.

Have a colorful day