Friday, October 13, 2006

rain, snow flurries, wind

Wild weather, the leaves are being torn off the trees and blown away. The only leaves remaining are those which are still green. The coleus is dead, but the rest of the plants in my ice-cream cone pots are still alive. Unbelievably, I still haven't potted up the siningia. Of the cuttings I tried to take, only one did root. I potted that and the coleus cuttings.

In addition to the work and stress levels at my paying job being through the roof this week, the weather has been unruly, to say the least. Wednesday it poured down rain, making the drive slower and much more tension-building than usual. Thursday there were snowflurries and it was quite windy. The snowflurries didn't stick to the ground at all, so except for the wind, the driving was fine. But the wind kept it up all night and is still howling this morning.

I was so tired when I got home last night, that I didn't turn down the heat before going to bed. As a result, I slept poorly, having one restless dream after another. The howling wind probably took part in my dreams in some way. At one point, at something like three o'clock in the morning, I thought I heard someone knocking very loudly -- one, two, three, four! -- on the back door. It woke me with a start and my heart was pounding so hard I thought it would burst through my ribs! The dogs slept peacefully on, so I decided the knocking must have been in my dreams. In fact, Molly, who usually initiates the barking, was snoring so loudly in her laundry-room lair, that I could hear her upstairs in my bedroom!

All these late nights ( I had to stay an hour overtime a couple times this week) had me sleeping in late. I decided to catch another hour of sleep instead of doing my yoga and is my body paying for it! My muscles in my neck and shoulders are so tight that a simple massage would never loosen them: it would take a pounding or maybe electric shocks or a red hot poker!

OK. Now that I've got all that whining off my chest, I am off to the city again today. But this time, I am meeting my youngest daughter for a late lunch, who gets off work at three, and shopping for those new running shoes I need, remember? And I am hopefully going to drop in on oldest daughter and granddaughter too. That should be more fun. And I'm being sensible: I'm doing some yoga stretches before I get into the car again for another few hours
worth of driving.

Below is my Lion's Tail, Leonotis leonurus, blooming like mad. According to my Richter's catalogue, it is a native of southern Africa where it is used for epilepsy, headache, hypertension, and for stomach and bronchial problems. It is apparently also called Wild Dagga, because it is used like marijuana by Hottentot tribesmen for it's euphoriant effects. Hmnnn. That potential bonus is probably wasted on me, (would it relax the tight muscles in my neck and shoulders?) because I will have difficulty figuring out how to use the resinous tops and leaves if I can't come up with a way to make them taste good. (remember my absinthe experiment? LOL!!)

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