Y'all are the BEST!

Not that I needed the validation or anything, but it was lovely to read your supportive and uplifting comments yesterday. It was, indeed, a down day, and those happen every once in a while. I made the best of it, and will continue to do everything I can to eat healthfully, move gracefully and with intention (doesn't that sound all yoga-y?) and shoo those negative thoughts from my mind. With your help, of course. THANK YOU.

After I published yesterday's post I went to the drugstore for generic Claritin and an allergy eye drop, to treat whatEVER the hell happened to my eye on Friday at the garden center. I was standing at the potting bench, moving petunia plugs into larger pots, when suddenly my right eye began swelling. It was quite dramatic, actually, everyone there noticed it. I washed it out with clear, cold water and hoped for the best, but that best wasn't good enough. I needed an anti-allergy arsenal, because whatever it was was quickly spreading to the left eye.

I've had eye "issues" before. A couple of times it has been too-much-sun-related, and I once ended up in an urgent care facility in Florida because of it. My glasses are the transition kind, and I try to wear a visor or a hat when I'm in the sun, but sometimes even that doesn't help.

But it wasn't a sun issue on Friday, it was probably just something in the air that decided to attack me. My eyes are still swollen and red this morning, but the loratidine is helping and I'm not sleeping the day away, as I would if I were taking Benadryl, which is the other thing the pharmacist recommended.

I spent yesterday afternoon crossing things off my long garden work list. I weeded the herb bed and planted lots of stuff in there, both plants and seeds. There's one empty "slice" of the circular pie, which I will fill with lavender and bee balm, I think. It still looks pretty raggedy; definitely not photo-worthy!

After I told a friend about all the straw we've collected lately, she asked, "What are you going to do with it?" Well, here's what I've done so far:

All the onions have been weeded and straw-mulched. What a huge job that was. I got the electric fence up around the vegetable garden Friday morning (and thinned the apples) and fenced the blackberries yesterday afternoon. Now I need to trim around them, add some cardboard and put down a thick layer of straw.

Then it's back to the big garden for more weeding/yoga (downward dog really is the best weeding pose) and, maybe, if the rains stay away, some major planting. In addition to the 48 Amish Paste plants I bought yesterday, I have some other tomato plants and a few peppers, along with cucumber, zucchini, edamame and Italian green been seeds. Oh, and this celery plant, which I hope will grow in the ground as well as it's grown in a dish on the kitchen counter. I'm always willing to try something new in the garden. I've planted celery before, but always new plants, never the root end of a bunch from the grocery.

We shall see … I think it's important to keep trying to grow my own celery, although I haven't had much luck so far. Celery is #2 in the dirty dozen, and Tiny Kroger rarely has organic celery in stock.

Time for breakfast, then time for work. And one last thank you before I go.

THANK YOU!