Do you ever play a game with the rain? I do it sometimes when I’m mowing. Yesterday, the clouds got increasingly dark and heavy. I knew rain was in the forecast. I was mowing the front lawn (after having mowed the corral and the lilac side of the lawn) thinking, “I’ll just mow the longer part of the lawn before it rains, otherwise it will get too long and will be difficult to mow.”
Don had given me strict instructions not to do too much, but little raindrops started to fall – just a few, here and there, and I immediately wanted to see how far I could get before I had to give up and flee into the cottage.
I managed to finish it all. Huzzah!
But, then again, I did far more mowing than I should have, which led to an allergy attack last night and into the night and very little sleep.
Crap.
That’ll show me.
I definitely feel under the weather, but I hope it’s all gone by the end of the day.
I keep seeing daddy longlegs on the hollyhocks. After several sightings over the course of the last month, I can’t believe it’s a coincidence.
I googled ‘daddy longlegs and hollyhocks’ and saw several photos which look a lot like mine, so obviously others are seeing them, too. But I could find no explanation as to why they seem to gravitate to these flowers.
Two flowers, two daddy longlegs. (By the way, I wondered if daddy longlegs needed a dash somewhere in the spelling, but the dictionary gave me this configuration, so I’m going with it.)
Another ‘by the way’; I saw birds in the birdbath a day or so ago: three catbirds and a robin. The robin, as usual, merely by his size, drove the catbirds away. But they stayed nearby and as soon as Mr. Robin left, they were back at it. I was so happy to see some activity there!
Finished Dishing the Dirt by M.C. Beaton, which is an easy read that can be done in a day. In fact, that’s what I did. I’ll be reviewing it this week on Just Let Me Finish This Page. Now, I’m starting The Girl in the Spider’s Web by David Lagercrantz, the author chosen by the executors of the late Steig Larsson’s estate to continue the series. It’s had good reviews and I can’t wait to dive in.
The library is a wonderful resource. I reserved The Girl in the Spider’s Web and it didn’t take all that long for me to rise to the top of the queue. Another Huzzah!
Yesterday’s morning glory.
Today is the last day to leave a comment on my book review. I’ll pick the winner tonight.
Okay. I’m off to cough some more and blow my nose and, hopefully, feel less yucky and start my book.
Happy Sunday.
I always look like an allergy wreck after mowing too. The satisfaction of a nice lawn is short lived! I envy people that can enjoy then smell of freshly mowed grass and not sneeze. Lol.
This time, sneezing, coughing and mega-congestion. Yuck!!
Ugh to the allergy attack. I am glad I don’t have to mow the yard (not my thing) but I do enjoy watering my flowers. Hope you feel better soon. I’m reading Sue Grafton’s X and it’s pretty good. I have some books to pick up at the library and one you recommended ‘Station Eleven’ can’t wait to start it!
hugs,
Linda
I have X on my Kindle, but won’t get around to it for a bit.
I like mowing a lot, but yesterday the gods seemed to want to punish me for it!
Won the race but lost the battle. Isn’t that a saying of sorts?
We have had several lovely fall-like days in a row. Today we start moving the temps up to the 70’s and then the 80’s. I surely don’t want a frost to occur yet. I think, though my flowers are tired, that they still have more life within them ~ and I still want to enjoy them. I did purchase a few mums, so will try and get those set out today.
Hope you have a grand Sunday!!
So far, it still looks rather summery around here. Of course, the coneflowers have definitely seen better days, as have the brown-eyed susans and I see yellow leaves on the ground from the ash trees, but there’s still some life in the garden yet!
Claudia,
I just found your delightful blog yesterday while scouting dollhouses. Your renovated house is inspirational and I am looking forward to making over my own 20-year-old little house that needs a lot of love. On the mowing front, I mow several acres here and get a lot of satisfaction out of my long rows and the lovely vistas that reward my work. I may be a sweaty mess afterwards, but there’s nothing better than a hot shower and a big frosty drink on the deck, preferably with a good book. But mainly, I wanted to tell you that I love your dollhouse and you did a wonderful job with it … it’s adorable! Have a good day today and I hope you feel better soon.
So nice to meet you, Dana! Welcome! Thank you for your kind words about the dollhouse. It was definitely a labor of love.
We live on a little less than 2 acres (some of it woods) and we use a gasoline push mower. It’s great exercise and, like you, I love seeing the results, the straight rows, and the beautiful green grass.
Nice to meet you as well, and now I’m ten times as impressed. PUSH MOWER! I simply wish I had a bigger tractor.
Sorry to hear about your grass escapades going south…many times I would try and outrun rain. I did the mowing around here for a good 10-12 years, then I gradually taught my sons. Now, hubby does it all…yeah! I always enjoyed it…especially the smell! Hope you feel better later! ;)
How about if we call them ‘grasscapades?’ I think I’ve coined a new word!
Oh…I like that…a lot! ;)
Claudia, just an idea – but have you ever tried honey for your allergies? I’ve become a huge fan of honey recently. In 3 weeks it’s all but vanquished the rosacea I’ve had for 20+ years. Honey did, in mere days, what antibiotics could not do in months, and it did it without anything toxic. The literature I’ve been reading says you need raw, local honey for the best results with allergies. RAW & UNPASTEURIZED/UNHEATED so none of those good, bee-produced enzymes are destroyed. And LOCAL so it’s more effective for your own allergies. I’ve just been so impressed by honey’s natural healing powers. I even put a dot of it on a hangnail I’ve been picking at and in the space of a morning – about 4 hours – it literally disappeared right before my eyes. So I am a believer!! Enjoy your Sunday – isn’t it a great afternoon for reading? Indoors?
I’ve tried it in the past, but to be honest, I don’t think I stuck to it. Raw, Unpasteurized? I’m going to get some!
PS – If you have a farmer’s market nearby, that’s your best bet for finding good LOCAL honey, the kind that can cope with the particular flora in your neck of the woods. With all the agriculture in the Valley there must be some beekeepers around. I use mostly the Earth Clinic website, but there are a zillion others. And it is important to do your research. Good luck!
I had a veterinarian once who became a real fan of local honey for canine patients. I can’t exactly remember now how she used it except that I have a vague memory of her saying she’d apply it topically to heal an incision (wound care)…don’t quote me on that, but it’s kinda what I recall. She’d visit a local beekeeper to get the honey in its most pure form. This just made me think of something else…oh, it was years ago…but this particular vet had an associate who’d formerly been a traveling veterinarian (via airplane) in the Australian outback, flying in to remote sheep stations to tend to ‘ranch’ dogs (or any dogs…perhaps it included other creatures; maybe she was a large animal veterinarian, too, but I can’t remember all the details). She swore by canned green beans for dogs, as a supplement to their food but also as a diet aid for fat dogs…I guess she’d have you cut down on the dry or wet dog food and replace some of it with the green beans. So, when she’d fly in to these isolated places, she’d often bring cases of canned green beans with her. Sounds odd, I know, but I do remember a neighbor of mine giving her dog canned green beans as a usual, normal thing. I would never try that now unless I sought sound advice from my current veterinarian!
As a lifelong asthmatic, I’ve been on too many different drugs over the course of my life for asthma and allergies but Mom would revert to the age-old remedy of mixing honey with lemon and giving me a teaspoon or so of it when I’d lose my voice after respiratory/bronchial issues. Not mixed with tea or anything else…just the straight honey and lemon, very thick. She had a few tricks up her sleeve as I suppose a lot of moms did in those years.
I have to ask, as a fellow sufferer…for the rosacea, are you just smoothing it over your facial skin? If so, how long do you leave it on? Do you apply it every day?
Claudia, I’m so sorry you had a bad night. I can try to imagine everything you’re breathing in while you’re mowing and also what’s settling on your skin and hair, which is why I’ve often read that it’s recommended, once an allergy sufferer is pretty much ‘in’ for the night and not going back outdoors, to shower off, including hair, so that you’re not breathing in anything weird for the rest of the evening inside your house, i.e. pollens/grass or whatever would be clinging to you and/or your clothes.
I’m currently suffering a nuisance, persistent, dry and unproductive cough which is greatly exacerbated by the heat and humidity we’re experiencing (endlessly) in Southern California. I cough all day and all night, my chest hurts and my airways are troubled, making it feel hard to breathe. I can use a prescription cough syrup which has codeine in it but only at night as it makes me too groggy in the daytime.
Feel better, Claudia!
Hello, Vicki – and yes, I basically just apply a very thin layer of the manuka honey over a freshly-washed face, after I “tone” it with raw apple cider vinegar – be sure the label states “mother included” or words to that effect. It’s really sticky obviously, and really $$$, so I put it only on the areas where I have rosacea. You actually use very little, and letting the honey warm up a bit in your fingers helps to spread it without tugging your skin. For 2 weeks or so, I did it every night and left it on ALL night, washing well in the morning. I saw so much improvement so quickly that now I use it only once or twice a week. Now I usually wash the honey off after about 30 min and apply chilled aloe vera gel with a few drops of tea tree oil mixed in. The skin absorbs this quickly and it feels cool and great. tea tree oil in aloe vera gel, which the skin absorbs very quickly and feels great. Some people like zinc oxide for the redness too – either in sunblock or diaper rash ointment. Get the highest %-age of zinc oxide you can find. Personally I didn’t see much improvement with the zinc but many others have so keep it in mind. Being that you’re Down Under too, you’ll get MUCH better prices for the honey – just be sure to get MANUKA. It’s only available from New Zealand and is the gold standard for medicinal use. And do your research – that’s really important. I did a LOT of reading and note-taking because rosacea is complicated. It seems to be caused by different things in different people and what works for some doesn’t do diddly for others. I also read that the longer one has had rosacea, the longer that it takes for the redness to fade, and this really seems true for me. I started getting these VERY rosy cheeks in my mid 30s, and didn’t get the nastier side of rosacea [blemishes, bumps, ugliness] until a few years later. So now while the bumps and blemishes are nearly gone, I still have quite a bit of redness – although it also is beginning to get better. At this rate I’m guessing it could be months before the redness clears fully – and that’s OK. I think the 21st century is going to see medicine and health care LOOKING BACK and LOOKING TO NATURE far more than it does now. It only makes sense that Mother Nature would provide remedies and preventatives for illness and disease, since we all evolved here together. There’s SO MUCH we still need to learn! Good luck.
Thanks for the good info. I’ve had rosacea, I feel, for at least a dozen years but am only recently being treated for it medically…at my request of the doctor. I’ve hesitated starting the prescription antibiotic cream he’s given me because although he says it is topical and doesn’t penetrate thru the skin into the bloodstream, I’ve recently had a terrible allergic reaction to another oral antibiotic and I feel I’m antibiotic’d ‘way too much. My problem is face and neck redness. Feeling like I have fire burning under my skin! I used to visit my auntie in a nursing home, which was always a bit distressing and the environment was dry and warm in there for the old folks, so I’d be somewhat anxious and hot and my face would flare up. My thin-as-a-rail auntie would always feel cold, so she’d hold my face in her hands to warm them…from my red-hot cheeks!
I’ve never had white bumps or breakouts. What I’m not liking is that I feel my red nose is beginning to look ‘inflated.’ The dermatologist says I inherited the condition from my mother. She was never diagnosed and just thought she was suffering the lifelong effects of a once-bad heat stroke which had been severe. I have this three-ring circus of hot flashes, becoming overheated…and rosacea, and who knows what starts off WHAT; they all intersect in a bad way.
By the way, I’m not in New Zealand although I’d love to see the country one day. I’m from Southern California in the U.S. I assumed wrongly you were from New York in the U.S.!
Thanks again for the info and thanks, Claudia, for allowing a little side chat here!
Hello again Vicki. No, you’re right. I am here in the US, in upstate New York. Don’t know how I got the idea you were in Australia – must have been reading/referencing some other comment. Anyway, as I said, rosacea seems to be quite complicated and what triggers in people varies, as well as what is effective in treating it. The best way is to start doing research, reading about the various types and what different groups of patients find successful. I know a lot of people who feel the warmth in their skin, and look red a lot of the time, have success with zinc oxide, and also in watching what they consume as far as spicy foods, alcohol and coffee are concerned. Just start by googling rosacea and you can find TONS of info. There’s also http://www.rosacea.org – good sources. And best of luck! Thanks to you too, Claudia… :>)
Thanks again. Just read an article about how to deal with flu and cold, and one MD discussed honey: “Honey is antibacterial,” he says, which is why he laces his tea with it and sips it when feeling ‘under the weather.’
So sorry you are having allergy problems again…The rain is expected here again sometime today..it sure looks like it out the window..and it is a bit chilly too…Beautiful pictures as always…The daddy’s certainly do seem to enjoy the hollyhocks…Take it easy today and rest Claudia…
Oh no. Does that mean we’re going to get some more? We had a LOT of rain!
I’m not allergic to grass, but I’m allergic to newly mown grass. Good thing I no longer have a lawn to mow. Get better. Know your limits and push them a wee bit, but don’t overdo!
Truth is, I felt a little off a couple of days ago when I was in NYC. I sneezed about 6 times on the bus and several times during the meeting. I remember telling Don I didn’t feel quite right. So I suppose this has been coming on and mowing and sweating and all of that just hurried it up.
I can’t do mowing anymore. It puts me and my allergies down for a week. I have a precious kid (not actually a kid anymore) that grew up with our son and lived down the street. He has a lawn service and mows my front and back and edges for $30.00 every two weeks. My back yard is huge and I’m sure he gave me a price break. It always looks so nice after he finishes.
Hope you recover soon. You really should know better. LOL
Judy
Well, I mow all the time and it usually has no ill effects. I have a feeling it was more than just the mowing, as I didn’t feel all that well on Thursday – I was sneezing a lot and very congested. Maybe it’s the seasonal change? Who knows? I can never figure these things out.
Hopefully you’ll wake to a glorious,allergy free mornimg. I love that Morning Glory image!!!
Take good care!!!!
Thank you, Grace!
I buy those cheapy mouth covers when I know I’m going to be kicking up dust and dander. I usually get irritated with the thing before I’ve finished my job and throw it down somewhere. (Just the child in me I guess.) Even though the grass or dust still gets to me, I figure I’ve gotten a smaller dose of allergens by using those thingys.