What Southerners are Missing

[Nyboy]

I light scented candles at work and home I prefer scent to come from fresh flowers but thats not always possible.

 

[ninnymary]

Just because I can garden year round doesn't mean I do. In fact even though I have kale, spinach, herbs, cilantro, and beets growing, I don't do anything to them. I do almost nothing in my garden in winter.

I do enjoy taking a walk every morning and looking at how things are doing though.

Mary

 

[digitS']

Winter 2017-18 began in November surgery. Quite a transition, wheeled into that room on a gurney. Then, these colds; it's been 4 years since we have had a cold, winter or summer. Colors my perspective.

I'm reminded of @Carol Dee 's cartoon of "why do I live where the air hurts?" It is a little surprising since my formative years were in warmer winter settings. However, I remember the incessant wind, winter and summer, on the Pacific coast, and the horrible smoke from the smudge pots after weeks of winter fog in Oregon's orchard country.

De-clutter @Beekissed ? Maybe it's my age and this tendency to sequester myself in a Lazyboy, cushioned with extra pillows and hot tea ... DW passes through now and then with the vacuum, between the chair and her house plants. I will be emptying the clothes hamper in the utility room this morning and really need to move "her" couches and actually get this living room floor carpet reasonably vacuumed. I'll say "her" since my time on a couch can be measured by minutes, monthly.

Meanwhile out-of-doors, we may have just passed the moment when darkness occupies 16 hours out of every 24. That's, 2 hours of darkness out of every 3.

No. My world seems so very confined this winter. The lights coming on in the fridge and revealing the orange, grape and V8 juice, the only color. Well no, there are the house plant green and that big bowl on the kitchen table of apples, oranges and banaananaannan anna nadas!

The prospect of spring? At least, I'm not so blinded by darkness that I cannot anticipate the dawn at 3am. Should I spend 1/2 the year in some other location? Sure, half a world away ... well, not exactly ... or I'd be in the middle of the Indian Ocean!

Steve
Why, what's the matter,
That you have such a February face,
So full of frost, of storm and cloudiness?
~ W Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing

 

[baymule]

My DIL uses the most stink in her laundry of anyone...and not content with stinky detergents, she ADDS more stink product on top of that just to put more STANK on it. I don't think I've ever been so dirty that my laundry needed that much cover scent...and I get REALLY dirty.
.

@Beekissed yeah, we have someone we know that they use so much scented stuff the smell sticks to the inside of food storage bags. we now know to take our own glass container with us to use as leftover transport back home. it seems to mostly come from the fabric softeners and dryer sheets they use. *phew* potent stuff... i can do without. since i react to so many things i like to limit what is coming my way. for deoderant the one i can tolerate is a crystal stick. barely...

and agreed on the four seasons. i like having a break to recover some and to do other things (need i say sort beans? )?????

I am so sensitive to chemicals that I can't even walk down the soap aisle at the grocery store. Cleaning products, candles, scented products all make me sick. Yuck. Perfumes to me are a cloud of stink that linger in the air after the STANK PERSON has walked by. I back up from people drenched in laundry products.

 

[ninnymary]

Bay, I too can't stand the soap aisle. Thank goodness I don't go there that often. You can hardly breathe!

Mary

 

[Carol Dee]

@baymule and @ninnymary The older I get the more sensitive I am to these types of chemical odors. Scented lotions, laundry products, colognes and perfumes at the very least give me a head ache. If I am trapped with it (say on a school bus, strapped into the drivers seat!) I can get stuffy, sneezy, coughy, congested. Hard to breathe! All my passengers have been asked to PLEASE not use hand sanitizer, lotion, liniment, etc... on the bus . Bad enough if they put it on before boarding. I have been known to drive with my window open and fan blowing towards back of bus in the dead of winter. It still happens. They say *Sorry- I forgot* (As they pass it around.) I do not understand the need to add scent to make it smell fresh ? Huh? Try FRESH AIR People!

 

[Just-Moxie]

I am so sensitive to chemicals that I can't even walk down the soap aisle at the grocery store. Cleaning products, candles, scented products all make me sick. Yuck. Perfumes to me are a cloud of stink that linger in the air after the STANK PERSON has walked by. I back up from people drenched in laundry products.

Omg...who all remembers those scented candle stores back in the 80's? Gag I can barely stand the detergent aisle at the store. I hole my breath, go right to the spot I need, grab what I need, then RUN!!!
And I don't even have those sensitivities.

 

[baymule]

My face feels like thousands of needles are sticking in it. My tongue and throat tingle like I just took a big bite out of a hot pepper.

People are so stupid to fall for all that marketing hype. Tell me why anybody needs their clothes washed in Mountain Fresh soap, dried with Floral Bouquet dryer sheets, their hair washed in (pick your fruit scent) strawberry shampoo, bath soap scented in Spring Morning (WTH?) perfumes of every smell concoction brewed in a chemist lab, Baby Powder deodorant, Mint mouthwash. By the time they walk out the door with all those odors on them, a road killed maggoty skunk smells better.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

At that sunny moment @Gardening with Rabbits , I was out for a walk. First walking outdoors that I've done in weeks!

I would have had to go out of my way to walk on any ice. The snow in the sunshine is gone except where it has been piled. I noticed that the neighbors caring to shovel their sidewalks have snow piles. Those neighbors who just ignore the snow and allow people to trample it, have no snow. There's just the usual gravel, broken glass, dog poop and occasional beer can ...

I kept a scarf over my nose so as not to breath too much of the cold air. Still, I think it was a good idea. This walking indoors is for the birds ... or obsessive German Shepherds ...

Steve

Glad you got to go for a walk. I have been making trips to Walmart just to walk through the store for exercise. I know what you mean about the piles of snow. My yard is showing more and more grass, but weather report says getting ready to snow in 2 minutes!. LOL

 

[digitS']

Didn't make it around the neighborhood yesterday. Seed Inventory! I'm probably about a week late since I now have to go through 3+ sheets of handwritten notes and consolidate information into alphabetized lists of veggies, herbs and flowers. The wind came up in the afternoon so 30 minutes of exercise was indoors.

And Sheet! I don't suppose that @baymule will ever be found in this accidental situation, reaching for her lunch at the buffet.



Steve