A much postponed update

I always mean to blog but somehow I forget what I was going to blog about or just don’t  have the time or energy.

I’ve been in a bit of a slump recently. Last year I was doing well and trying to get my farming business off the ground but then I had a months long depressive episode that killed the whole enterprise. I had to go off my antidepressant, but then by the time I was feeling better I ended up with that extremely long-lasting bronchitis that was apparently going around earlier this year. I finally had to sacrifice a week of vacation days to fully recover. :/

I eventually did begin to feel better again, even began to do well at writing again, but only being on my adhd medication meant I had a relapse of the very bad anxiety that originally prompted me to seek medication in the first place, so I got quite sick again, spending a great deal of May this year in a state of absolute misery because I was chronically nauseated. I lost about ten pounds just because I couldn’t eat anything, and you can probably imagine how lethargic and crabby it made me. I had to wait two weeks for a virtual appointment with my brain doctor and he prescribed buspirone, 10mg twice a day.

Unfortunately the main side effect I suffered from the buspirone was…nausea. Yeah, that was fun. After some research I reduced my dose to 5mg once a day and spent a couple more weeks dependent on Pepto while my system adjusted. This turned out to be not quite enough of a dose, as I was still having some issues when things triggered my anxiety, so I have gone up to 5mg twice a day and that seems to have taken care of the issue. I’m no longer having the terrible recursive thought patterns, my writing output is way up (I’ve done over 80k words since May, nearly done with my current project) and I am able to be nice to people at work again, which I’m sure they all appreciate.

I was posting a lot of native wildflowers before all this happened, but now that we are into the dog days of our horrible Texas summers, there isn’t a lot going on in that vein to talk about. On the art front, I spent too much time looking at polymer clay artists on Insta and it inspired me to make some small things, mostly earrings so far, but I also made a gift for a friend, which I shall refrain from posting here just yet so as not to ruin the surprise. (Idk if she reads this extremely neglected blog but still)

A pair of pastel rainbow earrings composed of small, slightly translucent polymer clay leaves
Fluffy rainbow earrings that I made while playing around with Sculpey III translucent. Colored with pastels, except for the blue-green, which was colored with Golden High Flow

Wildflower Season, Part 4

Opuntia cactus with yellow blossom just beginning to open A few years ago when I developed an  intense interest in succulents and cacti, I harvested some pads from the prickly pear in the back corner of my yard to root. One of them got planted in the front yard two years ago, and last year it flourished, growing about a dozen new pads. This year the pads are covered with flower buds, which I’ve been watching, waiting for my very own cactus roses to bloom. The first one started opening yesterday!

Wildflower Season, Part 3

Patch of pink primrose with a fuzzy black caterpillar
Pink Primrose is a prolific wildflower, shown here with a fuzzy black caterpillar

I took this pic during Ben Ben’s morning walk. It turned out surprisingly good considering the wind today, which you can kind of see in the way the primroses it’s happily feasting on are all swept to one side. This year has been excellent for primrose, they are literally everywhere right now and I love it!

 

Wildflower Season, Part Two

Asclepias sp.; a cluster of green flowers with a surprise bee friend.
Milkweed flower, Asclepias sp, an important plant for the endangered Monarch Butterfly
Milkweed plant, multiple clusters of greenish flowers and long, narrow, pointed leaves
Milkweed plant, Asclepias sp, with bonus pink flowers, possibly gaura.

I spotted this on my way home from work a couple days ago, and stopped the next morning to take a picture. It’s a beautiful specimen! Milkweed is a diverse family, and very important for the endangered Monarch Butterfly, and they only lay their eggs on these plants, and the caterpillars eat them. Mild toxins in the leaves build up in the body of the caterpillars, making the butterflies toxic to predators. I’m hoping the plant will last to go to seed, I’d like to harvest them to sow on my property for next year. *crosses fingers*

Wildflower Season, Part One

It is spring in Texas and I have been taking a lot of pictures of the wildflowers around my neighborhood. Today we have the classic Texas Bluebonnet, lupinus texensis, very common on the highways courtesy of the Texas Highway Department. This one is perhaps not in the best shape, a little past prime but the color is so rich and lovely. I took this one about a mile down from my house; for some reason that’s the closest patch.