I’m going to find a photo that I took of the Boston fern early in the spring and pair it with a recent one. It’s once again full and beautiful and I’m thrilled.
I had a painful night with ongoing back issues. I ended up coming downstairs and sleeping in my chair. I think I’ll do that again tonight. The bed, for some reason, isn’t the best place for me right now. Today I will take it extremely easy as I’m determined to kick this issue to the curb. I’m over it. Don is taking portraits at the Farmer’s Market. Plus, he’s been taking care of me. And he’s been watering all the plants. To call him a gem is an understatement.
I don’t know how many of you saw this, but late in the day yesterday, Nancy left a comment here. She said she had a strong feeling that she should visit the blog. I don’t know the details yet and they might be private, but she said she’d send an email soon. Whatever the reason, I’m just so relieved to hear from her!
At one point in the day yesterday, I questioned whether I should have written the post. I contemplated deleting it. I’m glad I didn’t.
Good news! Thank you for all your caring and concerned comments. We are a community and I’m damned proud of us.
The antique dollhouse is back up on top of the china cabinet in the den. I’ve done all I’m going to do with it for the moment. We also wanted to use our kitchen table for eating once again!
That’s about it. I’m wiped out from the sleep and back problems, but I’m so grateful that I did get back to sleep last night. We had a big thunderstorm last night with lots of rain so Don won’t have to water the seedlings (morning glories, zinnias, etc.) Looks like a beautiful sunny day for the Farmer’s Market.
I can’t even address the horrific news from El Paso and Dayton except to say our real terrorism threat is homegrown: young white men. The GOP is bought and paid for by the NRA.
I’m sick of the whole damn thing.
Happy Sunday.
Glad to see that Nancy has checked in! Our grey Sunday seems appropriate for the somber news reports—again.
Garden question: The coneflowers we planted last year never returned, so we bought some more and have planted them in a different place. I remember that you said you didn’t deadhead them, so they’d drop their seeds over the winter. Do you deadhead them while they are blooming or just never at all?
I never deadhead them. You don’t need to. The seeds will drop or be dropped by the birds that will dine on them when it’s too cold for new growth. When it’s time to clean up the garden in the spring, I cut down the stalks, but only after I see where the new growth is – which should be in the same vicinity.
I am glad to hear you heard from Nancy. Her intuition was spot on.
I went to bed last night with a heavy heart…I woke up to even more tragic news. You are right about young home grown terrorists. The Senate needs to pass that bill from the House regarding background checks. At least it would be a start.
At least at this time of year, the gardens mostly require water. It sure helps when Mother Nature help that along. Kudos to Don for helping….but he’s Just that kind of guy! Take it easy today! ;)
It just rained a bit. Yay, no watering!
Glad Nancy contacted you and hope all is well with her world. Sorry you have to baby that back a bit, Claudia. Sleeping in a chair…ugh.
That’s what I had to do last time.
no words today….. I’m sick of this.
feel better & enjoy your yard.
Thank you, Priscilla.
I’m happy we heard from Nancy Blue Moon. Her nom de plume is my favorite.
I am, too.
I don’t comment a lot these days, but I agree we never have to worry about foreign terrorists or murders. We raise them right here! Words are not enough…
You’re right. There are no words.
Thanks,Claudia,for telling us that you heard from Nancy. Yes, we are a community and a caring one. xo
Thank you, Annette.
Good news about Nancy. And talk about intuition too – wow! Hope the porch has a suitable chair for your back [reading on the porch in today’s weather could be sublime]. Enjoy your Sunday! Peace.
❤️🌿📖
#Resist
#ImpeachTrump
No porch today. Those chairs aren’t good for my back.
glad you have some relief for hearing from nancybluemoon. praying all’s well in her world.
and for your back!
have you seen that meme(?) on the internet about how eight people got sick from eating contaminated lettuce so it was pulled from grocery stores across the country, yet hundreds of people have been killed in hundreds of mass shootings and you can still buy guns at (walmart)? more praying …
taking it easy here this afternoon. hope everyone can.
kathy in iowa
I haven’t seen that one but the same thing happened when one person’s inept action resulted in us all having to take off our shoes at the airport.
Thanks, Kathy.
“They” tell us to fear anyone who looks differently than we look. We need to fear anyone who looks and acts like anyone in this damn administration. They are the terrorists and they are quickly breeding and instructing a mean batch in their wake.
I am so sorry for your back issues. I have been in constant pain since Mother’s Day weekend that seems to be in my hip/ upper thigh. They did x-rays and an MRI and found my back is full of arthritis. My back has never bothered me, it is that thigh area. So a few weeks ago I had 4 spinal injections and they told me it would take 2-3 weeks to feel the benefit. Just 2 days ago I have had my first relief of the pain. It has been brutal. My poor husband has done the watering every day along with making all the meals and the cleaning, etc. as I couldn’t do a thing. This getting old stuff is NOT for sissies.
So glad you heard from Nancy. I know you must be relieved, and we are all happy to hear it, too! Hope you were able to relax today.
I’m so sorry to hear you’ve been suffering, too, Chris. It isn’t fun. I sure hope this helps you.
Oh, Chris K, I hear you on this. I was told years ago, after xray, that I had a lot of arthritis in my back, but the problem is thigh, where legs meet torso like the legs of a teddy bear you can move from where they’re attached at his stuffed main body. I can’t walk very far on concrete/pavement before my upper legs just freeze and I can’t walk another step til I wait for a few minutes and then continue; have to address it soon; I’m hoping it’s not hip degeneration. Now I’m wondering if I have something similar to what’s going on with you. I hope you get more relief.
Hi, Vicki
I had a hip replaced about 16 years ago. Same leg, so I thought for sure my hip had displaced, but I had just had my yearly x-ray 2 months previous to the pain and all was well. I was truly shocked when she said it was my back!! The relief I have felt the past few days has been miraculous! I know what you mean about the walking and freezing piece. ugh. I encourage you to have it looked at. Being in pain 24×7 has been a horrible experience. I wish you the very best!!!!!!
Spinal injections sound so scary; yikes (like they better know what the heck they’re doing!). I was supposed to start physical therapy last week (didn’t; oops) and now I’m wondering if it’s pointless. My ‘regular’ appt is upcoming with my primary-care physician, so we WILL have this discussion; I fear I have the exact thing you’re suffering with, Chris; I’m glad you brought it up, though, because I clearly can’t wait forever on it, thinking it will improve and then it never does. (Claudia, are you listening? Don’t ever let your back get this bad!) So, thanks, Chris; and thanks, too, for your well wishes and it’s really always nice to know when someone isn’t hurting so badly after a rough go’round.
Happy that you heard from NancyBlueMoon. Hope your back is better soon. Take it easy.
Marilyn
Thank you, Marilyn!
oh my. I’m so sorry about everyone’s pain. is it really part of getting older?
or is it the blanket of hatred and fear and day to day animosity that the bungler in the white house continues to spread?
and it manifests itself in making us sick and in pain?
we bow down to the strangest GODS in this country. and NRA heads the list.
I will go back and read Nancy’s comment. I’m SO glad she responded!
we were all worried. she is in all of our thoughts with only the best for her!
as Tiny Tim said… “God bless us! every one!”
I could use a Little Buddy/Little Z fix myself! XOXO
I think it’s a bit of both. I’m sure that many of us are dealing with things that have manifested because of the constant stress and anger and disgust we’re feeling. And the disgusting language coming out of the WH on a daily basis. I certainly feel like I’ve had a lot more ‘troubles’ this year and that’s part of the reason I try to pull myself back from the news. xo
YES. I totally agree. xo
xo
tammy! You are right. My Dr told me she has seen many patients with stress induced symptoms, and all of the Drs in the practice say the same thing. Nov. of 2016 was the beginning. My BP has been affected so much. I have always thought of myself as being able to discuss current events most of my 69 years, and have always loved watching the news! I can no longer do it. It saddens me so very much. I can’t even look at that horrid face without my BP elevating. He and his administration are the terrorists in my life. I have become a person who has to live with her head in the sand for the sake of my health. It all seems so unfair. The idea of another 4 years of this can bring me to my knees.
Yep, for a long time now (well, after the last presidential election, not at first, but eventually), I’ve skimmed over online headlines/newspapers, removed myself from Rachel (although I love her), CNN, MSNBC; I would get too riled; I have never, ever, EVER been able to stand DT even before he was President. If he’s re-elected, and I can’t imagine HOW, we’re doomed. I can’t look at him; I can’t listen to him. That instant stress when it happens that I’m exposed to him has definitely worsened a blood pressure problem I have, among other physical conditions which plague me. It seems we’ve all stepped back away from the stress in self-preservation, yet I often am nagged at, in my brain, that I need to stand up (a book my mom gave me when I was age 16 about being the woman I’m supposed to be, to ‘stand up for right in every situation, no matter what the world may say or do’ [were pages of sort-of poems; gentle instruction]).
It’s the eternal dilemma in this administration: How to protect our sanity and our health and still take action.
I forgot to mention Mrs Fern! she is absolutely magnificent!!!
She is! I’m so proud of her!
Claudia, you are a true gem. You are talented, smart, caring and truly interested in all aspects of life that surround you. I, and many others look forward to your blog each day. No matter what is going on, whether it be happy or sad, good or bad it is wonderful to hear from you. Thank you.
Thank YOU!
I hear you, about being fed up. I awoke this morning to the TV on, with more tragic news and I said to my husband, “I’ve just gotta get out of here today, right now, can you be ready in 15 minutes because I’ve gotta get out of my head.” Just too many tears because there’s too many guns and nutcases ‘out there’.
So, we got in the car to my place of solace which is the beach and I tried to get calm with what I saw as harmony and goodwill before me, AKA people on a day off, just trying to enjoy being alive; Sunday in summer at the shore. It seems innocent; it seems safe. But is it. I took deep breaths, inhaling the salt smell of blue sea and soft breeze; heal me. I refuse to be looking furtively around me; I don’t want to be ‘aware’ of my surroundings unless it’s about surf & sand and sunblock.
It was crowded even with fog/overcast, typical for SoCalif beaches in August, because, well, it’s August, it’s tourists, it’s vacation time, but that’s okay because the beach is free, for everyone, and I loved seeing children frolic on the sand and at water’s edge with their happy dogs (wagging tails, diving in the water then shaking off with delight, unfettered), a dozen surfers catching some excellent waves, sea birds and rock squirrels in abundance (quite unafraid of the people and dogs!), really-elderly people gingerly walking (holding hands!) on the sand with their toes in the surf (good for them!!); teens necking (oblivious as they should be to all the activity around them; you’re only young once!), jet skiers ‘way out there in a straight line going somewhere with precise intent (great formation!), people fishing from their stakeout in the foamy ankle-deep water (spare poles stuck vertically in the sand); toddlers with their floppy hats and little sand pails; people setting up for the whole day (this was 10am) with their massive canopy/sunshade and beach chairs/tables, a portable propane grill, huge jugs of water, a rack for drying wet clothes and bathing suits (they came prepared!!); parking was tight so we moved the car a little (did I say how much I love my husband?) to allow one more surfer to squeeze in and he was enthusiastically grateful, so we were all smiles and, frankly today, smiles felt good; better.
I watched a woman doing yoga on a mat on the harder sand just inches from the water line and she looked so serene, like a mermaid. I couldn’t help but think, I want to be her. She exudes a quiet strength. Her face was serene.
My husband said we will not back down. We WILL continue to go to the mall; we WILL go to the movie theater; we WILL go to Walmart; we WILL go out to a restaurant; we WILL go to the county fair; we WILL go to our town’s festival in three-week’s time; we WILL go to the first football game of the season at the high school stadium; we WILL go to the band concert at the library; we WILL go see the play on stage at our local playhouse. These terrorists cannot and will not put fear into us and take away our way of life; we will NOT be restricted due to fear of being out & about. The powers that be are not gonna take away the guns (my jadedness) but they cannot take away our freedoms and make us want to crawl into a hole to be safe (and be forever fearful of our fellow man). We will NOT be bullied. We will NOT stay inside our house. We WILL be brave and defiant in the face of utter insanity and and sickening bias. And I will continue to believe and know that the majority of people are good, not bad. I will hold on to these truths. (I keep repeating this to myself today.)
What continues to be so sad is that I know someone who works for a college and he said that for some time now, MOST, not a few students EXPECT and accept that at some point in their attendance to be confronted with a shooter (the ‘norm’; they’ve grown up in an era where a shooting was a repetitive thing throughout their whole young life [like Columbine was, what now, like 20 years ago, right ?]); and, equally sadly, the school has to have (not occasionally; rather, quite regularly) emergency drills to reacquaint and remind students on what to do in the presence of a shooter (so that it becomes a second skin to know how to react).
And to think when I was that age and younger, the only drills we had in school were for fire and earthquakes. (Oh, and we did file out on rare instance due to a bomb threat because, after all, it was the 1960s and there WAS some degree of unrest, although there were never any ‘real’ bombs at our school – – but a shooter? Never in our wildest dreams. 1969-2019, are we rid of violence in the U.S. fifty years later? I’d say we are not rid of, but indeed RIDDLED with…)
I drove by my beautiful high school yesterday evening, which is a wide spread-out campus over 3 streets on a hillside, encased in old graceful trees with the buildings in the design of early 20th-century SoCalif Spanish/Mediterranean stucco and tile, and my breath caught to have to see it encased in chain-link and iron fencing/gates like a prison (which of course had to happen for security of the students and the structures in a 21st-century world). It’s hard not to say to oneself, “What have we come to; how did this happen? What went so terribly wrong?”
Then I wonder how we can go another year til somebody new is at the helm of the ship.
But I’m off on a tangent, Claudia.
So, another topic.
I do hope your back is in better shape soon. At this age, our backs have had a lot of years of wear & tear. You’re so physically strong but you do a lot of ‘back-breaking’ work in that large yard of yours, so you’re wise to listen to your body and know when to take a break; give it rest. A couple of days from now, we’ll hope you are your usual self again!
Oh, and do I envy you for your rain! SoCalif is looking pretty brown again; we need a washing and a soaking. One year, maybe is was late 1990s, we started getting rain at September’s end and it continued; we didn’t even get Santa Anas. That was a darn fine year! So nice & cool in our normally still-warm month of October. I’m look’in for a repeat!
Sorry for typos; my eyes are troubled these days even when I proofread; will be glad when I can finally have cataract surgery.
An aside because it’s at the brain forefront (I’m upset; we’re all upset; these are terrible news days with unspeakable things happening to fine, decent people):
I live in a SoCalif community which is approx 85% Latino/Hispanic and 15% non-Latino/Hispanic; I can somewhat relate to El Paso in how the city must be crippled with grief (they have a similar demographic) as I know my own town would be, with one dominant cultural group being the target of twisted hate. It affects all of us, regardless of color or culture or religion; at home, across the nation; abroad. Any crime is intolerable, but a hate crime is particularly heinous.
Most people who cross my day at anytime in my life are of Latino/Hispanic descent (primarily Mexican); for instance, just one instance, neighbors on either side of me and across the street from me (and behind me up on the top of the hill) are either Mexican-born or 1st generation American born to 100% Mexican parents. Any of these neighbors of mine are intelligent people; they’re not going to make the leap that my husband or I am anything like that horrible monster who killed all the people at the Walmart, just because that psycho is ‘white’ and I’m ‘white’ (I cringe at these labels/words as descriptions; people who are Mexican ARE ‘white’; if anyone ever had an anthropology class, there are only three races; look it up [when I was in school it was Caucasian, Mongoloid {Asian} and Negroid]).
Yet the monster-shooter does harm beyond harm beyond harm; because were it I who was the Mexican on this Sunday in my neighborhood, I would have a seed of wariness I didn’t have before … toward my non-Mexican neighbor (me); and I can’t blame them. This sets up a divide we just.can’t.have in this nation. If we’re not careful, something like this happens, and we walk back YEARS from any strides we’ve made for better relations and understanding among all cultures and race and religion in this country. We’re supposed to move forward, not backward.
You get to my age and look in the rear view, seeing how citizens/people have evolved in some really wonderful ways, then realize we’ve still got a ton of work to do, so I think I have to summon the energy to get back at it, with the writing and calling to my congressional reps as a start (gun laws; some kind of control with social media; mental health; pick one).
It’s devastating.
Thank you, Vicki.
So wonderful that Nancy came to the blog and responded. All those thoughts were sent out and she received them. Sorry about your back. I totally understand. Mine has been ok lately but I’m just one wrong move away from awful pain. Still coughing but slowly getting better. Rest my friend.
You rest, too!