Sunday, 6 September 2021
At home
Early in the day, I felt too dizzy to go outside, even though I felt desperate to, and asked Allan to take some garden photos for me. Here’s what he found photo worthy.
Even though I had felt so much spinning inside my head today and the weird feelings on my right side, I was feeling so claustrophobic in the house that I asked Allan to help me try to do some gardening at five thirty, when the sun was obscured by light clouds. I felt that light flashing in my eyes through foliage might have been a trigger for why I almost fell a few days ago.
We went down the two steps to the garage with me having a death grip on the grab bar and then harvested a disappointing potato harvest from one of the large flower pots. I don’t think the potatoes liked the raised bed planting mix, too peaty. I don’t like that it is peaty, either. Not good for the environment. I didn’t read the ingredients when I bought it.
I was able to pull some wool out of the big bag from Purly Shell and get it into compost bin one. I piled it on the rollator seat to move it. A layer of green was already underneath from when Allan had brought home escallonia clippings from a hedge trimming. And I was able to use the long fork tool to pull brown compost over from bin two. So satisfying. I am so glad I got all the bins turned and harvested all the good compost before this illness happened.
Even though I was scared of falling, which stress may be contributed to the dizziness, we went into the garden next and I sat on my rollator to trim floppy plants from the side of Rose Loop East. The renamed Rose Loop, formerly Rozanne Loop,goes around the center bed.
I was able to scoot the rollator by standing and moving it a bit, then sitting again, and I was able to move the wheelbarrow to keep up with me as I chopped stems into smaller pieces for the compost bin.
Because I felt I needed monitoring, having gotten so dizzy earlier in the morning that I couldn’t even put toppings on my oatmeal (a bit of applesauce and some nuts), Allan stayed near and bottomed out some spent daisies.
He is not a Non Gardening Partner like Mary Ruston’s spouse, but it is not how he wants to spend all his days. I appreciated the daisy clipping. He tossed me the stems and I chopped them finer into the wheelbarrow.
It is strange that I can bend and pull weeds without head spins. Well, maybe. I didn’t think it made me dizzier but after awhile when I stood up I got the standing spins and then the sitting spins and felt scared. It was time to go in. I was disappointed to run out of balance before I finished picking myself a bouquet from around the edges of the paths. All I’d gotten were some verbena bonariensis and orlaya.
Allan took the wheelbarrow to bin one to get it out of the way of the rollator and I looked at this view while I waited. (All other photos are by Allan.)
Just to practice not having dementia, I reeled off the plant names, including Rosa sericia pteracantha which is to the right outside the frame.
Getting back into the house was a scary but relatively safe journey. I felt refreshed by the outside air and hope to be able to go out a bit every nice day. Rainy weather would be a boon for being able to concentrate on reading indoors without being deprived. I also might go read on a chaise longue but it seems uncomfortable to be outside without being able to hop up to go into the house for creature comforts. I’ll have to prepare by taking water and snacks and a warm shirt in case a breeze comes up.
I used to think that when I got quite old, I could take care of the garden well enough as a retired person in just an hour a day, if that’s all I could manage. If Allan, in retirement, was willing to garden the equivalent of one day a week, even better. And if I got completely decrepit, I could have a south deer fence built closer to the house and turn the south garden into a deer park, which would be interesting to observe. I feared disability all the time but hoped it wouldn’t happen till I was at least 75…not now at age 66 (I hope not permanently) nor did I consider that I need an observation deck…and a door to it…on the south side of the house because it is not easy even getting to the south side patio when it’s hard to walk.
I got Allan to pick me a bouquet to have by my chair. The cats are finding it all too interesting. He remembers when I didn’t like him picking bouquets from the garden because I preferred leaving the flowers outside to enjoy (although I do pick bouquets for friends, or used to).
I rather sharply pointed out that times have changed, that I used to like the flowers to be in the garden and not the house because I was almost always in the garden and not the house, but now I am mostly in the house and not the garden. So now I have a bouquet to look at from my reading chair, with Helenium ‘Butterpat’, Verbena bonariensis, some orlaya (or some other airy thing I grew from seed) and my mom’s red velvet rose. I hope I can pick the next one all by myself. That would be some more good progress.
Oh I have a Mary Ruston NGP. He will dig or lift something heavy if I ask. No supervising allowed :). You are most fortunate to have Allan who has gardening acumen.
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It is rare, I think, to have two gardening partners who are completely simpatico. The book A Gentle Plea For Chaos tells a story of that kind of relationship, and I think Anne Wareham and her spouse are also in accord. Other gardening couples have to divide their gardens to get along.
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Don’t give up yet. I haven’t on your behalf.
It is nice to have a gardening partner. Allan is definitely a keeper. My deceased spouse was also a gardener. He is the one who converted me. I now can’t imagine life without a garden. My new boyfriend, while not a gardener per se, helps me whenever he can. Since he met me, he has also taken some potted plants on his apartment balcony, and he loves them.–Says the balcony is better for the plants. They seem to thrive in his care.
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I sometimes think I wish Allan was as obsessed as me. Then I realize I’d have to compromise to please both our tastes and I rather enjoy not having to do that. He has his own area, much smaller, very beautiful, mostly ferns and lower maintenance than my areas.
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Hats off! Where there’s a will, there’s a way. However, I do hope something can be done to alleviate the dizziness. Soon. Technically, I am on a blogging break this week, but I must read your post to find out how you are doing.
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Thanks! We are coming up on some rain which I guess I have so linked with catching up on you and Mr T that even when I’m not doing much, I tend to wait for cozy rainy days to catch up. Although I can’t let myself get more than a month behind. I like to read later because both of you get such good comments.
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What an amazing paridise you have made. I am wondering how much water and what type of soil your Sanguisorba are in. I have shorter ones and they are not doing great. Take care
love peace alway
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Hi! I have found that sanguisorba like water. In the back garden, my water table is high, so the grass stays pretty green in the back part, and we supplement with water now and then. The soil is richly amended there. Oddly, though, S Pink Elephant seems to do pretty well in the front garden, which is dry!
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Skyler, have they not mentioned to you the Epley maneuver for vertigo? Or do you have a different kind? John suffers with it also, and went to PT at Astoria Hospital twice, which completely helped him. It’s back this weekend, and he is able to do exercises from YouTube on the bed, which has also helped a lot. I am so saddened to hear that you’re suffering so much. I hope you can get a resolution to this soon.
On Mon, Sep 13, 2021, 7:18 AM Tangly Cottage Gardening wrote:
> Tangly Cottage posted: ” Sunday, 6 September 2021 At home Early in the > day, I felt too dizzy to go outside, even though I felt desperate to, and > asked Allan to take some garden photos for me. Here’s what he found photo > worthy. Passiflora caerulea on the arbor Robert ma” >
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I really wanted to find someone to guide me through the Epley maneuver but my doctor said she doesn’t believe it. I am kind of amazed by that. Anyway, I am happy to report that today, from a referral I got from a nurse last week, I DID get to see a physical therapist who performed it and unfortunately, I guess, could not diagnose BPPV because I seem to be getting better slowly on my own. But I still think it helped some, and it definitely triggered some moments of intense spinning! I have heard there is a great PT in Astoria who does it, too. I’m sorry John is having an episode. I understand Epley’s movements now, so I’d be able to do it at home.
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Your flower garden is looking gorgeous. Having bouquets to enjoy indoors is a great idea. It was nice you were able to get out for a little while. I’m thinking of you and wishing you continued improvement.
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Thanks, improvement is kind of up and down but feeling better this week than last week for sure.
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Your garden is looking great so you must be pleased at all the work you managed to do before being overcome by the dizziness. I hope that it will not be too long before time the great healer gets you back on the road again (and or medicine and exercises).
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I seem to improving….a few setbacks but otherwise steady progress.
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