allergies

Allergy Season – ND #106

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Budding Weeping Willow (yesterday – when the sky was blue!) – Photo: L. Weikel

Allergy Season

Well, tonight’s post is going to be short. I have a headache behind my eyes that only seems to be getting worse as the night goes on. I’m pretty sure it’s because, like it or not, allergy season has arrived. I can tell it’s allergies because my feather-light wire-framed glasses are leaving indentations on the bridge of my nose. Ugh.

Not only are a plethora of flowers joyfully springing forth, the culprits of my misery are the trees that are blooming. It seems early to me to see the buds bursting out in all their chartreuse and burgundy splendor. (Different trees, different colors, just to be clear.)

Add to That

As we walked earlier this evening, Karl and I thought we’d heeded the weather forecast. But alas, it started raining when we were just a little past halfway around our walk-around. (Of course!) The gloomy, low ceiling of rippling charcoal colored clouds were depressing as it is. But then the wind picked up and started whipping around us, making the raindrops feel especially aggressive.

Even Princess, Middle, and Liddle had taken cover, snuggling into their warm and dry beds of hay. Meanwhile, the four of us plugged along as quickly as we could, not only getting wet and cold but also feeling the stuff from the trees being blown right into our faces. The only up-side to walking during allergy season is the pure and unadulterated joy I experience when I wash my face with a steaming hot washcloth when I walk in the door. Aaaaah.

I’d like to think that if allergy season is arriving early, it’ll also abate earlier as well. Shh. Let me live with my delusions a little bit longer.

Tonight

As I’m sitting here now, I can hear the wind again picking up and pelting our windows with raindrops. There will probably be a lot of buds littering the lawn tomorrow morning, too.

Oooh, I just checked my Weather Channel app – it’s 38 degrees out but feels like 31. Yep. It’s raw out there. Stay warm – and try not to let the outside world bring you down.

(T+106)

A Short One – Day 885

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Weeping Willow Blossoming – Photo: L. Weikel

A Short One

Tonight’s blog post is going to be a short one. I’m in the midst of being felled by an onslaught of tree pollen.

It’s hard to keep my eyes open this evening, and it’s not just a function of being tired – although that’s a part of it. My fatigue is merely a symptom.

My head is throbbing yet again and another reason I can’t keep my eyes open is because of the sensation of a knotted rope behind them. Every time I spent any amount of time outside today, when I came back inside I could feel the sensation of pollen clinging to my face and the faint buzz in my ears that’s always a tell-tale sign of allergies afoot.

I’ll admit, it’s hard to concentrate on anything at the moment. Everything became exponentially worse after our longer walkabout (4 miler) tonight. We actually tried to get in a shorter walkaround (2 miler) this morning, when we weren’t sure whether the rain would hold off later in the afternoon.

That means we managed to get in 5.5 miles today. No, we didn’t make it all the way around on the shorter walk because, of course, it started drizzling only about half a mile in.

Willows, Elm, and Ash

Maple, Juniper, and Alder. We’ve got all of these heavy-hitters not only on or near our property but perhaps even more importantly also lining our path as we walk through the countryside. What a double-edged sword the springtime can wield! The beauty of the lime green buds sprouting in every direction is such an affirmation of life and new growth. And yet.

Well, clearly I’m having a hard time thinking or writing about anything beyond my own miserable self. So I will spare you any further details.

In the meantime, please also enjoy this photo of a Goldfinch showing us a little feather in front of a lovely magnolia blossom.

Goldfinch and Magnolia Blossoms – Photo: L. Weikel

(T-226)

Gooey Thoughts – Day 170

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Precious, looking…precious; – Photo: L. Weikel

My Thoughts Are Gooey

That’s what I’m feeling tonight.

I’m sitting here contemplating what I might write about and it sort of feels like my thoughts are floating but actually maybe more like half-submerged in a lava flow of a substance that’s thicker than syrup but not quite as thick as taffy. And it’s actually not ‘flowing’ anywhere. It’s just slowly, viscously sloshing around between my ears, words and thoughts randomly bobbing up from the depths like logs in a flooding river. Of taffy syrup.

I’m thinking it could be a reaction to the coating of chartreuse confectioner’s sugar on everything outside, especially my car. Spring has indeed sprung forth and inundated us with tree pollen.

Of course, the pollen on my windshield may not be as dramatic as the pine pollen that spray-painted Charlotte, North Carolina gold about a month ago, but it’s significant enough. I feel it in my hair and notice a tickle at the back of my throat after only taking a quick walk this evening. And again, my thoughts are sticky.

Or gooey. Take your pick.

Sometimes we just need to know when it’s time to go to bed. This moment feels like it may be one of those ‘knowing-times.’

Of course, I wish I could embed a recording of the cacophony that is providing the backdrop to my writing tonight. Let’s just say there is significant snorage* happening, and most of it is coming from Sheila, with able assists from Precious, our eldest cat, and Spartacus.

And then I nearly jump out of my skin. Cletus, our long-haired black and white puss has hurled himself against the screen on one of our front doors in an extremely irritating but effective manner he has of alerting me to the fact that he wants to come inside. It sounds as if he has been shot out of a Nerf®cannon and is sticking to the screen with Velcro®.Well, Velcro®with claws. Claws that rip “guaranteed incapable of being ripped” screen material. But again, he lands with a <<BANG>> on the screen, scaring the heck out of me, and then I hear him yowl and yank his claws on and off the screen, basically doing his part to ruin the door.

“Innocence” – Photo: L. Weikel

Ah yes, I love our animals.

I realize I rarely take photos of Precious. That’s because she’s our resident Paranoid Puss. She spends a lot of time in the cellar, of her own volition, because that’s her happy place. Lately, though, she’s been cozying up to me in the morning, nearly turning herself upside down with joy that I’m scratching her head.

In my defense, I’m always game to hold or pet or scratch her. But she’s definitely one of those types who only wants affection on her terms. And those terms are usually arbitrary and capricious – and pretty much when it’s most inconvenient to shower her with affection. Which only feeds her paranoia.

I’ll have to take a photo of her tomorrow.

Wow, well there you go, yet again disproving something I’ve just written. It just so happens she was in the mood for some lovin’s a moment ago, and amazingly stood still enough for me to ‘steal her soul.’ So now you know what she looks like.

I should warn you – this is probably a sign of the Apocalypse.

Yep, she’s messing with me; – Photo: L. Weikel

*Yes, I made that word up. Just seeing if you were paying attention.

(T-941)

Fuzzy Brain – Day 144

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Photo: L.Weikel

Fuzzy Brain

I just wrote several paragraphs on the subject of me making up a new word: ponderable. Actually, it’s already a word, but used only as an adjective. I wanted to make it into a noun.

Don’t ask me why. I can’t really answer, except for the fact that I’m tired. I think perhaps the tree buds bursting forth and coating everything with a slightly yellow-green coating of pollen (that almost looks like peach fuzz) has caused me to contract a touch of ‘fuzzy brain.’

Details Deferred

I would like to share more with you about my experiences yesterday, starting with those creatures who ‘visited’ me while I sat beside the creek, and the significance I read into each of those amazing moments. But I fear I’m going to have to defer to the effects of fuzzy brain syndrome.

Perhaps I need to attempt to write my posts earlier in the evening, at least during allergy season.

It’s interesting to see how variables we’re not even expecting to hold sway over us suddenly do.

Complications of Context

Part of the reason fuzzy brain may be having an impact is because the events of yesterday are not simply relayed seriatim. No, their import cannot be fully realized without some context, which thus necessitates further explication of events that took place some weeks ago.

And just in writing that, I see for myself why I simply cannot muster the necessary mojo, as it were, to begin this process.

Wow.

That’s a lot of words to say I’m not going to write a lot of words tonight.

Don’t Forget the New Moon – and the Seeds of Your Intentions

In closing, I’m going to simply remind you that we’re enjoying a day of a powerful new moon in Aries. It sounds as though this particular new moon is readying to shoot us forward into our futures like a slingshot.

As with any powerful surge forward, probably the best we can do is point ourselves in the direction of where we hope to go. Setting intentions, planting seeds, opening our minds to perhaps doing things in new ways than we’ve ever done them before are all wonderful approaches to this ‘dark night’ – when the moon is fully obscured and we wait patiently another day or so to see the first tiny sliver of reflected sunlight begin again to illuminate the evening sky.

I can’t say where the clarity to write that paragraph came from. But I think I should leave well enough alone.

Sleep soundly, sow well, and dream your world into being!

(T-967)