It’s the height of the gardening season here in the Northeast. The coneflowers and brown-eyed Susans are opening their pretty petals, the phlox is beginning to bloom – and oh, that scent! – more day lilies are making their presence known. Bees are everywhere, especially in the catmint – a plant they seem to love. All of the hostas, and we have a lot of them, are blooming as well. All in all, a good time to come back home after three weeks away coaching.
Gol’ darn it! I love my gardens.
We’ve been here almost 10 years. Who’d have thought it? Two itinerant artistes got together and somehow landed here in this too-small-but-charming cottage situated on almost two acres with woods and grass and space for a garden bed or two or three.
This was a dream of mine for as long as I can remember. I always wanted what I termed “a cottage somewhere in the country.” It took me awhile, but I got it. And I wouldn’t trade those years living in apartments in cities, Detroit, Philadelphia, Boston, Cambridge, San Diego, for anything. They’ve shaped me; they’ve given me a strong taste of city life (which I still love) and countless adventures.
But at this point in our lives, both Don and I find ourselves preferring this life – this quieter version of life. Being in the Arts, with jobs and opportunities that have taken us all over the country and abroad, has broadened our horizons. Maybe that’s why we appreciate this little cottage and our life here all the more. It’s rooted in our love for each other and our doggie and our love for the simple beauty of nature. (And for eclectic and whimsical decorating.) It’s the culmination of our lives before we met each other and the twenty-one years we’ve been together.
Yesterday, my friends, was a stressful one for me. I had an appointment to have some dental work done (an extraction) and I, being petrified of the dentist, was rather a nervous wreck. Our health care changes every year and the dentist I trust implicitly (and who is quite near our home) was no longer available under our policy. I dithered about it for a while and finally decided to have the work done and pay for it myself. That isn’t the ideal scenario given our tight budget, but going to someone I already know and trust makes what is a scary ordeal for me much less stressful.
So at 10 am, I was in the dentist chair. Don, thank goodness, went with me for moral support and then got my prescriptions filled (which, thankfully, are covered under our health care) and then went back out in the afternoon to buy some soft foods for me to eat. I was on pain meds yesterday, but today I don’t seem to need any, which is a good thing. I’m also on antibiotics for a few days.
I have another appointment in a month or so to deal with another issue. But for now, I can relax.
And maybe work on the dollhouse roof garden.
Don’t forget to read the book review I posted yesterday. I really loved the book and I’m giving away a copy. (I loved it so much that I passed it on to Don, because I think it’s right up his alley. It’s funny.)
Happy Tuesday.
So glad that you no longer need the pain meds. I am an absolute BABY about the dentist. It is my least favorite thing so I am sympathizing with you.
A kindred spirit! Thank you for the support, Lynn Marie!
Claudia, your garden in beautiful. My husband does not like dentists either but we did find someone who is great for him. It is very important to go and feel comfortable with the work being done. Enjoy your garden today! Doris
I will, Doris. Thank you!
I love how after 10 years you have got your gardens so lush and beautiful. I am so enamored with your cone flowers I really do need to see if they would grow well here (making a note for myself to check on that). I do not like the dentist and have great anxiety about it. Last year after my visit to see my daughter in Calif. I had pain in a tooth. My new dentist was fabulous and while the work was extensive (cracked fillings had to be replaced) my old teeth are doing well now. Glad you are feeling better today.
hugs,
Linda
Thanks, Linda. I may take a pain pill as it’s sort of achy, but I’m going to wait a bit on that one. I was wiped out by the whole ordeal and fell asleep on the sofa last night!
I share your disdain for going to the dentist. I cry all the way there! Glad the pain meds aren’t needed…for me, I don’t take them unless I absolutely can’t take the pain. Then I take them because I know REST is important for healing. Take care of yourself dear Claudia.
I love seeing pictures of your gardens and your homes.
Your small country cottage suits your family!
I have a hard time picturing you living any place else, though, I get glimpses of a the cosmopolitan ‘girl inside’ when you’re away at work. ;)
take care!
Oh yes, she’s in there! About 30 years worth of city living resides in this country girl’s heart.
You seem very contented, Claudia. That is what is most important in life. Feel better. xo Laura
Thank you, Laura. At the moment, I’m feeling quite contented!
The three of you are in a good place Claudia..Thank you for sharing it with us..I hope the pain leaves you alone today..
Just a twinge – I took Motrin (prescription dose) and I expect that will be the last one I have to take.
Oh..the dentist! I feel the same way about going. A cottage in the country with beautiful gardens, married to a wonderful man…and a loving pup…life is good I’d say. Feel better! ;)
Life is good and I don’t have to go to the dentist today.
Oh…Throwing you a huge (hug)! I start sweating as soon as I set foot in the dentist’s office. Fortunately I’ve got some tough, sturdy chompers, but I do have a crown coming up some time in the next year. I try not to think about it.
I just love ‘visiting’ your gardens, Claudia. With our heat and drought this year, we’ve had to postpone planting anything at all! Your photo with green hydrangeas and pink cone flower nearly made me swoon! :)
So sorry to hear about the heat and drought, Dori!
Claudia, I’m petrified of dentists. I’ve neglected my teeth and gums because of it and have one that is broken and desperately needs pulling. I can’t afford a crown or root canal. Hopes for healing soon and no more pain. BTW, love your cottage. It would be perfect for us. Apartment living is not for me! We had no other choice because our house sold quickly. Looking. Take care and get better so you can tend to that beautiful garden.
I have a couple that are broken, so I understand. It’s expensive stuff, dentistry. I understand. I hope you find a way to get it taken care of . xo
Many years ago, I had a really awful experience with a dentist which actually was a case of malpractice. It led to a phobia which endured for years and I did not go to a dentist for about 15 years. I developed a serious tooth problem and had to make an emergency appointment for treatment. I explained my phobia and how it developed and the dentist was very understanding and supportive. He took great care and has helped me overcome my fear.
Claudia, I so understand your fear of dentists and your need to go to the one with whom you feel safe. I am not certain that I could go to a dentist other than my current one.
When you find one that understands your phobia, and is gentle and kind – that dentist is worth hanging onto!
Glad you’re feeling better, Claudia.
As always, your photographs are outstanding. I love how your out-of-focus-backgrounds contrast with the preciseness of the flower close-ups. The lighting in the Echinacea image is spectacular.
I’m with you regarding “home.” I have lived in and traveled to many lovely, interesting places, here and abroad, and am now very happy to be at home. There’s no place that I’d rather be. Far from the madding crowd.
Thanks for your kind words, Nancy. I love, love taking photos of flowers!
You are so aware of and thankful for your blessings, Claudia. Thank you for sharing your life and viewpoints with us in blog-land.
Glad you got through your dental appointment. I have a dentist I trust and like very much. He can keep an entertaining monologue going while working expertly on my teeth. He knows me so well that he can adjust the lidocaine to my pain threshold or even tell me that the “shot” shouldn’t be necessary, but give him a signal if I do need it. I don’t know what I’ll do when he retires!
When you find one that understands you…you stick with him! And worry about retirement. Mine is about my age, so who knows how much longer he’ll practice. Fingers crossed it’s for several more years.
Once we find our “home sweet home” we just know it! Sometimes it might take a while to find it, but once found, there truly is a true joy in that contentment.
These days of flowers blooming are the ones which sustain us in the months of January and February. (Wouldn’t it be nice if those 2 months flew by as quickly as do July and August?)
Hope the pain med helped so you are feeling better!
Yes, why is that the winter months seem to go by much more slowly?
Hi, I get the dentist thing. I love my dentist too, and a couple of years ago I had to go in to meet about some bone rebuilding in my jaw (the sound of that makes me think of a horror movie). Anyway, when I got there he had a glass of wine ready for me…we had joked before the pow-wow that a glass of wine would make things go much smoother! He’s great! Hope you continue to feel better. xxoo
Any dentist that has a glass of wine waiting for you is pretty cool!
Well, on the one hand, be glad you could go to the dentist for an extraction. I’ve been having ridiculous problems with a cracked molar which resulted in a root canal/crown that’s not working at all, so now it looks like…after all that (and it’s painful; hurts all the time)!!!…I’m going to have to have the darn tooth pulled anyway…and they’re going to require that I go to an oral surgeon for the extraction which will probably involve full anesthesia (being ‘asleep’). (They can never numb me enough…my ‘system’ resists local anesthetic and I have major sensitivity to novocaine.) I have had SEVEN visits already…long hours in the dentist’s and endodontist’s chairs over 4 months and I’m fed up with the whole thing! And they’ve taken ‘way too many xrays including a CT scan and who needs all that radiation, over a tooth? Not me! They keep talking implant,implant…I keep saying, pull it, pull it…
Isn’t it the most frustrating thing, when you have a great doctor, a good/established relationship…and the stupid HMO will not let you go to him/her. This has happened to me again and again…losing terrific relationships with physicians who are local, and winding up with not-so-great physicians who I have to drive to another town to see. It’s, I think, inexcusable although clearly the HMOs will come right back at the criticism by citing their staggering costs and the crisis of healthcare in America. And what happens is, because I don’t want to go to a new doctor, or I have a day (there are many) where it’s impossible for me to get out and drive to another city in my county or beyond, I then delay going to appointments which has actually put me in jeopardy (but that’s a whole ‘nuther story).
I went to the HMO dermatologist a couple of weeks ago and it was an absolute joke. He gave me a 5-minute/less ‘once-over’ on what was supposed to be a full-body exam for skin cancer…the ‘ol eyeball check is what I call what he did…and also pronounced he had no intention of doing biopsies or of freezing off the scads of bumpie-lumpies I have from too many years in the sun when I was younger. I have been seeing dermatologists for 25 years to where they ‘go over me’ with something akin to a lighted magnifying glass, like a grid search. They ALWAYS biopsy SOMEthing, I have a stitches/incision scar from what they couldn’t discern was a melanoma or not, so they removed it; they always whip out the freeze-it-off thing. So, I feel vulnerable; am so unsatisfied with this situation and I’d waited far too long to make an appointment in the first place, then waited three months to see this guy who was obviously heavily booked and, I have to be fair, probably very overworked. I have now located another dermatologist for whom I got a good word-of-mouth reference from somebody who HAS skin cancer (my dad had it, too; we’re both very fair with light eyes although brunettes). Dermatologists are hard to find in my area. Anyway, this new guy is all on me…I’m paying out of pocket which is probably going to cost a small fortune. The ‘bad’ doctor said that not everybody who abused the sun will get skin cancer but I’m on a tightrope with that because I regretfully courted the sun til I was 35 years old and I’ve heretofore been watched carefully by the dermatologists of my past, sometimes being seen every two months, (I’ve had some terrible, blistering sunburns but, you know, I lived at the beach…in a bathing suit…for years while unbelievably going to a tanning salon at the same time when I apparently was brainless, and I used to crew on a sailboat weekly, one time spending a month on one on the open sea AND, unlike lifeguards, wore NO sunscreen OR hat, ever. Why wouldn’t a doctor, after you tell him that, raise a red flag and look at you a little more carefully?)
I also have a long-time physical therapist who has worked on my neck/back for almost 30 years and the HMO will now not allow me to go him…and I am no fan of their alternative, which is the Plan’s hospital-associated PTs who have made my neck WORSE in their haste (they’re too busy) whereas my long-time therapist ‘knows’ my neck’s quirks. So, physical therapy is another thing I have to pay out of pocket; consequently, I don’t go as often, and suffer. One more thing: I broke my foot five years ago, the ER didn’t cast it and my doctor told me to go out and buy a man’s work boot. Seriously. I’d injured the other foot in the same fall, my hands were also injured and already too weak to hold onto crutches…so, I couldn’t walk at all, had no one to help me at home, and I waited an entire week for a wheelchair thru the HMO (it was either that, or pay a $500 deposit on one with a daily rental…found out later that sometimes Goodwill has wheelchairs you can purchase, or a local hospice may have one to loan). When I fell and hurt my feet/hands, I also put my head through a steel-framed door which was thankfully screened (I fell on concrete, about 4 feet down) and they didn’t even xray me in the ER, foot OR head, although my head was beginning to ache, which I told them. Not that I want a ton of xrays ever but, c’mon, we all know what happened to Natasha Richardson, the actress [didn’t she win a Tony?], who hit her head in that skiing accident and then wound up dead within 24 hours or something; actor Liam Neeson’s wife, from the great Redgrave acting family…it was such a tragic, tragic incident. (I brought this ‘news story’ up to my ER doctor and she said to me, “Your eyes are clear and you’re talking coherently; if you had a brain bleed, you’d be unstable;” well, it had just happened; I’d gotten myself immediately to the hospital. With Natasha Richardson, I’d remembered that she seemed fine when first checked out and I think it was a few hours later that she began to get a headache. So, my husband had to get off work to help and also keep an eye on me for the rest of the day and the next day; we were worried and I think rightfully so.
“The HMO and I.” I was forbidden to see an orthopaedic surgeon who’d been my doctor for 19 years (I’ve been in a car accident; that’s the problem, in my 20s) and also my gynecologist (he’d been my surgeon as well) because it was HE who finally said in frustration, “No more HMOs!!” The HMO, though, is what we can afford thru my husband’s employer. Somehow, I actually HAVE wound up with a good oncologist from the HMO’s list (finally, a ‘hit’ among the ‘misses’). He saved my life; I feel like I should not complain. Truly, I’m not ungrateful for insurance when so many people don’t have any. I’ve seen elderly people struggle to come up with enough money at the pharmacy counter to buy, say, prescription eye drops (probably glaucoma). It makes you wonder if they’re going without necessary meds. But at the end of the day, my HMO…a widely-known one…is I feel flawed (let’s say there’s room for improvement) and, personally, I can’t WAIT til I can get on Medicare even though it won’t cover the cost of my prescription meds which will mean I’ll have to take out supplemental insurance but at least I’ll finally have some flexibility with doctors and care. My parents were served very well as self-employed people with a self-paid PPO; then, equally served [pretty wonderfully] with Medicare for their healthcare needs in the later/ending years. They had bigger ‘co-pays’ with Medicare sometimes but I’d gladly go for that in exchange for being allowed to pick my own doctors. My experience is that most doctors take Medicare but a lot of doctors won’t take an HMO patient.
Off my soapbox/’hot topic’ prompted by your post but, oh wow, Claudia…I do SO feel your unease over paying out of pocket just to keep your same doctor. I have totally ‘been there.’ I’m just glad you got the work over and done. Glad you’re doing okay!
You’ve certainly had your share of HMO craziness. I understand. I don’t like having to make a decision like that – you develop a relationship with a doctor (and I don’t even go to the doctor very often) and you feel you can trust him/her and then, suddenly, your insurance won’t pay for that doctor. Makes me crazy,
Don will be eligible for Medicare next year. We’re looking forward to it! I won’t be all that far behind.
I’m glad your trip to the dentist is over and done and your pain is minimal. It’s nice to read how content you are with life…so many people always want more, more, more.
I’m finally back to trying to catch up with blogs after a week away for my pacemaker surgery. As you probably read on my blog, it involved a much longer hospital stay than planned. Since I feel as though everything I’m doing these days feels like I’m slogging through mud, I’ve decided to just start fresh with reading posts and not try to catch up with everything. Have a lovely day Claudia.
Blessings,
Betsy
Betsy, I hope and pray you’re feeling better now! You’ve been through a lot. Just take everything at your own pace and don’t worry about catching up. xo
I can totally understand the stress over very expensive, but not worth a dime if you have to use it, insurance. I will be on Medicare in a couple of months — and I cannot wait. I have put off going to the dr. this entire year because I have such a high deductible. Who would have ever thought I would actually be glad to turn 65? Hope you feel much better. Enjoy your garden and house and Don and Scout, and just take it easy. You certainly deserve it.
I know what you mean. Don will be 65 next year and we’re looking forward to one of us being on Medicare!
Even though I was once a Registered Dental Assistant, I am still a bit weary of going to the dentist. I even knew when my former dentist overcharged my insurance for something he DID NOT do on me….I paid attention to everything he was doing AND he did not do the 300.00 charge that he billed my insurance for…so…needless to say, I don’t go to him anymore.
But good to know that Don was there to be your support. Cheers for Don!!!! You have a terrific hubby, Claudia! You realllllllly do. Hope all goes better for you. I had a root canal a few years ago (5) and my hubby made my crown…he is a Dental Tech. I was under so much stress that I had clinched so tight and cracked my tooth. No fun at all.
I think your garden is the perfect distraction for dental needs. A few pain meds and a nice stroll through the garden should put one in a great mood! **smiles
xx
Clearly, the world of all things dental runs in your family, Becky. I had no idea! Love learning new things about my friends. I have to wear a mouth guard because I clench and grind my teeth, so I understand! xo
Claudia,
The gardens sound lovely. In Mississippi, we had an incredibly wet, cool spring and now are having record heat. Not very conducive to a nice garden. A big storm brewed all around last evening, but missed us almost entirely. We got a light sprinkle out of it is all. I am glad your dental appointment went well and that you are feeling better. I have my issues with going to the dentist as well. My last appointment for a checkup was on a too-busy day and I almost cancelled. Then two hours before I was to go, there was a bank robbery a couple of doors down from the dentist which shut the area completely down because the robber had a bomb. I thought, “I won’t have to go now!”, but when I called to check, the receptionist said the police were allowing them to see patients by my appointment time. So, I did what I hated to, dreaded to. I went on and ended up feeling almost as good as if I had been to get a massage. I think just being able to lay back and relax after a taxing morning gave me the boost I needed to get through it. And I do have the greatest dental hygienist. I won’t let anyone but Rose clean my teeth. She is thorough, but very gentle.
May your flowers blossom and your hedge arrive safely! I like seeing the dollhouse progress.
Joyful blessings,
Susan