another blustery sky drama day

Living in the hollow has always reminded me of living on a boat. We had a 36 foot ketch when i was a teenager and we spent weekends and summer sailing in Lake Pontchatrain and Gulf of Mexico. The similarity being the weather. Today I am hoping that the dry squalls prevail, that the river begins to clear and that more tomatoes have opportunity to ripen! The hollow is not nearly the close quarters of boat, but relationships are indeed isolated from distraction. Most exciting for me is that eldest son is visiting with his stunning wife and their feisty adorable Maltese, Kingsley! Will soon have more pictures and new distractions. I am so looking forward to Uncle Ez and Aunt Jen getting acquainted with their niece - what fun. Now though I must return to the monster growth of weeds.

knock-outs

i need to plant some more of these wonderful roses! The color striking against house and flowers from spring to fall, ah; if the few i've put in do well, i plan to route some of my day lilies in front and plant more roses. I'm also trying one of those giant hibiscus that die back in winter, not sure it will survive here, but good color . Got acupuncture this morning at Cooley's and this afternoon I've a follow up with doctor in Christiansburg, hoping to meet Sarah Bradford who was the doctor whom i had hoped to see before in the too big practice.

Sarah Bradford MD is wonderful; and she agrees that I most probably did have scarlet fever, the Bell's Palsy happening because i was so run down by the illness. she said that my face is healing so quickly that there should be no lingering effects and we laughed so over her comment that her husband was also her worst patient!

Diane emails that because of listener response, WUVT is rebroadcasting the interview show from June 21st from 3-5 this Sunday (8/2)! It is odd to think of just what that response amounted too; i like Kelly's notion of 2!

Girls Outting

Beautiful blustery day, comfortable weeding weather and mulching with grass clippings - old half a grimmace is near presentable! Mindy and DD and I ventured out to Target and Kroger; DD facing forward in the car now made for boisterous conversations. Little feet has some new shoes, although none that she wants on her toes in this warm weather! Soon, no doubt, we will be hearing more of just what she's noticing on an outing - i suspect that stores are still an almost overstimulation of color and sound.

oh, not so fast

i'd love to say that i am much repaired; but not the case: a face that 1/2 smiles and 1/2 sags (Janus). I woke up Tues 7/21 with Bell's Palsy on the right side! Since my last post on the 15th, I had gotten an RX of amoxicillin because I was still miserable after seeing doctor on Monday the 13th who said i just had some virus. Mindy figured out that the rash I had on my side and the "spider bite" was also rash - which with the fever, chills and sore throat might mean scarlatina. So i called back the doctor who sent in the Rx. But I never felt better on the Amoxicillin; Monday the 20th I got adjusted at the chiropractor which helped my hip pain. Tuesday, however, woke with swollen face and tongue which first made me think allergic to Amoxicillin. It was later that i realized it was one sided and there was numbness and paralysis (like Novocain) on the this right side. the doctor's office said that they had nothing to help me and to go to ER (i am very disenchanted with my new doctor's office). I had taken some Apis in morning and later Causticum; but with a sad resignation i allowed John to take me to the ER. Now I have the arsenal of conventional pharmaceuticals: steroids, antibiotic and antiviral. Doctor thinks that all along i had Lyme's (and indeed I did have a tick on my lower leg - but only for seconds - and on Bell's Palsy morning I found tick on my right ear). He said the Lyme's test doesn't always show much and is expensive, etc - so I'm on Doxycycline. Then for the Bell's Palsy I am on antiviral and prednisone. Do feel better in that no body aches, fever or chills. Weeded my sweet potatoes this morning and planted some more onions. Woke last night when a lovely squall came thru the hollow. John and I even made some dill pickles which I have stored in studio frig instead of processing in hopes they will be crisp! Am still in pickle overload!

back to appetite

Misery is the flu, lucky us to have the daily goat parade and grand daughter's first birthday. The fever and chills have moved elsewhere; i am left with bone pain and some sinus pain. But my hunger is back and I am again enjoying our garden! My spider bite has enlarged from the circumference of a quarter to that of a small oval plate - it looks less inflammed. Still managing to get through the day only with the help of Tylanol. My search for my own homeopathic remedy is convoluted: I grabbed Gelsemium the first night when i forced my aching hot body downstairs at some pre dawn hour to find help. By the second day, I realized the Gels. was not helping and managed to prop myself up long enough to get on internet and check out the Herscu Lab. Nux Vomica tool. It seemed a better fit. And yes, it stopped the severe chills, but by day 5, all symptoms thundered back with higher fever and burning eyes, desire for cold cold pack on head, lots of anxiety. I took Arsenicum. I was still having to take two Tylanol (generic) every 4-6 hours for the pain in neck, occiput, sinus, left shoulder. Day 6 I was back to just Tylanol, only to feel on day 7 that I needed the repertorize again. This time I ended up with Eupatorium Perfoliatum. But I only took one dose: as I lay in bed around 2 AM it occurred to me that I had not added how depressed I had become; how much sickness had made me feel an adject failure. And I had not noticed until that morning how left sided my body pain had become, and the sinus pain was now a boring pain over the left eye. So back to the computer, the remedies were getting closer I thought, what symptoms were left were important and they stood out clearer. So today I took Aurum which also covers wounds, bites of poisonous animal!. I feel like I am on the mend though slowly!

the pig

i don't know how a pig suffers flu, but we seem to have contracted the so called swine flu. Aches all over, especially neck and jaw and forehead. Weak, shivering, horride taste in mouth and no appetite. Would like to sleep - but lying down the pressure in the head is worse. what would a pig do? going to try to watch a netflix.

kayaking on the NEW

Friday was so chilly as to raise fear in my heart that the fourth on the river might be disastrously cold; but it was a beautiful day. Before we'd gone 1/4 of the way from Eggleston to Pembroke, we beached at Ann's for a glass of wine. Tod's boys, John Henry and Paul Wyatt, checked out our motley crew - no doubt, finding Alden of most interest in the double kayak with her dad. We took Tod's advice to take the inside passage by the island - and it was lovely but very shallow. Bob was smart to not follow. What fun to chat with Larkin as we slowed down as the river slowed - legs dangling over the sides of the kayak. Chris and I want to outlaw motor boats; Stefen wants to put a motor on his kayak! Beautiful beautiful river, wonderful comraderie, good time for the soul.

like fall day in July

The beginning of Dog Days announced the radio; oddly not so here, lovely balmy cool day - fine for planting another line of edible soy and to replant my second planting of corn. And my thoughts lingered on how much i always longed for seasons as a child growing up in unseasonal New Orleans - I remember looking out of our bedroom window on Henry Clay at the stunning Maple which had turned crimson and dropped its leaves. I recall longing to stay in Pennsylvania at my grandmother's and not return to school in New Orleans - to know what winter was like, to feel the cold. Was it seasons I longed for; or escape from the unchanging home?

wonderful visit with Stanley and Sharon, two of their grandchildren, Liam and Chance! Chance who by the second day felt comfortable enuf to don his black watch plaid robe (and he wore it home!) and Liam who talked John into giving him his first target practice with a 22.

And Bad Girls met again for lunch, at the Buffalo store this time.