What Doesn't Kill You...

A year ago I was just starting to move the last of the wood from a cord I'd had dumped here...

I had had the wood dumped on a huge tarp that I then tried to wrap over the top of the woodpile.  The effort to keep the wood dry was a failure.  The tarp held the water from the melted snow inside so the bottom layer of wood was lying in standing water and the tarp left a really obvious "crop circle" and I was convinced this piece of ground would never recover. 


The bare outlines of the "crop circle" remain, but I think I would need a hovercraft to shoot a photo making it obvious to the reader.  I tried standing on a step stool and playing with the exposure and color to no avail, but the point I'm trying to make is that what I thought had killed out everything simply allowed the wild iris and sage to thrive.  Yesterday I noticed the first wild iris were blooming...

...and the sage is also abundant...

So I'm hoping my recent fall will, if not leave me stronger, at least leave me no weaker!  

I decided I'd keep an "eye diary."  Here are the three photos I've taken, the latest this morning.  The first photo was taken on Tuesday, May 21, the day I fell...

The photo below was taken yesterday, May 26.  Sometime between the fall and here, the points of impact became more apparent than they were right after it happened, but the bruise under my brow is starting to turn yellow, a good sign...

Here's today, May 27...The bruise is spreading, I suppose as the blood settles, but my cheekbone isn't as puffy. 
 

People who know me well know I recommend sports cream for a variety of "off label" uses, I learned many decades ago that I could rub it on my forehead for sinus headaches.  I've most recently been using Walgreens Cool 'n Heat...

and I've been, gently, rubbing this on my impact spots.  I figure it increases circulation and that can't be bad.  You do have to take some precautions.  I don't recommend smearing this all over your forehead and then jumping in a hot shower so that it runs down in your eyes. I've also been rubbing this on my right arm, but have to admit that whatever ails my arm is not responding to my home remedy.  

Today my horoscope...do you read yours?  I read mine and if I like it I pay attention.  If I don't think it makes any sense I ignore it...and I think this was actually for yesterday since the one I receive in my e-mail seems to come a day late...said, 

Your first impulse will be to ignore it and bravely go on.  Don't.  Epic sagas aren't written about someone who was cranky from the flu.  Go home.  Tend to yourself.

Since I had commented in an earlier blog this week that the pain from this arm injury makes me feel at the end of the day as if I had the flu, I decided this horoscope was right on!  

Our winds have been up, gusting 30 mph to 40 mph...blew this heavier tarp...and the rocks I had used to weigh it down...off the table last night...

 and it looks as if this is going to continue until Tuesday, which makes me tired anyway, so I think I'm waiting until tomorrow to take a load down to the apartment.  It got down to 34F degrees last night according to NOAA and is supposed to hit 31F degrees tonight.  With that wind, it was cold in the cabin last night.  I'm unable to keep my electric blanket and other covers in place because of this arm injury so was half uncovered most of the night I think.  It will be nice to get through this and hopefully come out stronger....Teddee

Spring Tease

The skies have looked like this off and on for the last several days...

...and the barometer must be way down because it's very quiet and just feels as if something needs to happen, but we'll get just a few moments of gusty winds and a few drops of rain and then it ends.

Even though we've had some really hot daytime temperatures, those aren't consistent either and NOAA predicts a low of 30F degrees tomorrow night, a low of 32F degrees Saturday night and 35F degrees Sunday night with a slight chance of snow off and on through the weekend.  The plants seem to know it's not spring yet, with just a few green sprigs showing...

These are wild iris...

I thought I had smothered everything winter before last when I had my firewood off-loaded in this area.  I had put a tarp underneath the wood and folded it over the top of the wood pile and only later realized this was not only unnecessary because of the low humidity here, but actually captured water under the wood.  We had such a late spring, with snow until Memorial Day, so I didn't get the last of the wood moved until mid-June.  When I finally moved the tarp, I had a bare "crop circle."  But it actually encouraged the growth of these iris.  This is what the meadow should look like later this spring...

The photo above was taken the beginning of June a year ago.  I don't know, since we stopped having snow so early this year, whether these will bloom at the same time this year.

Another sign of spring...a lactating, and ravenous, vixen...

She is so hungry she's willing to risk body and soul for calories.  Last night I fed her five chicken drumsticks and two raw eggs!  I think she was stowing some of the food because she would run off with it, but I could see she wasn't crossing the road south toward the creek and the den, and she'd be right back.  You can see the meaty end of a drumstick protruding from the side of her mouth below...

She's been coming around earlier and earlier in the day when the dogs are still around, so yesterday I finally shut Dixie in the cabin to allow the fox to come and get the food I was putting out.  I thought after the third piece of chicken she'd probably had her fill and let Dixie out, but the fox came back, appearing in the neighbor's yard to the west.  I just held Dixie's collar and told her she could learn not to chase the fox and explained that the fox was nursing and was very hungry and she needed to let her eat.  Dixie didn't even pull against her collar after that and I was able to hold her with my left hand and snap the shutter with my right.  Almost a lion and lamb moment.

I also, finally, got the last of the wood moved yesterday.  Here's the last load.  I said, "Hurrah!"

Today I got the recyclable trash taken to the dump and made this eggplant and cheese dish in the slow cooker. 

It has a good flavor, but is too soupy, so with cooler temps arriving again perhaps I'll get a good fire going in the wood stove tomorrow, put this in a shallow casserole dish and bake it the oven for a bit.

If you're still waiting for spring, how are you passing the time?  Teddee