Progress on the Fern Garden

I had a seizure on Sunday. It was about a 6/10. I hadn’t had one for quite a while.

Obviously I hate having them. Suddenly, without any warning or reason, I lose control of myself for up to three minutes; I start hyperventilating and I have often have episodes of spasticity or myoclonus. They’re frustrating and exhausting, but most of all, they’re embarrassing when I am in public or with company.

I watched a documentary on PTSD the other day.

I’ve always had trouble with my diagnosis. It’s been hard to accept, especially because I see so many people in the media claiming to have it (Lady GaGa) who display no visible symptoms and behaving in a way that makes their having the same disease I have very  hard to believe. But the documentary was astounding.

They showed clips of soldiers after the World Wars with an incredible range of physical symptoms including seizures, speech problems, spasticity and extreme sensual sensitivity. It made me believe in my diagnosis better than the clinical language of Dr. Shoja.

The documentary also considered the question: Why some soldiers and not others? And that led to considerations of personality and the severity and longevity of the threatening experience. But the most surprising thing that came out of that part of the doc was that in WW II Allied forces were given up to 100 mgs of methamphetamines daily as a prophylactic to reduce the occurrence of PTSD!

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Today was another spectacular day. but it was hot! I was glad to be working on the Fern Garden (FG) because it’s in the shade. 

I could hardly wait to get started on a job that I did not want to do until next year. I love being down on all fours, carefully removing the weeds and leaving as much moss, and natural growth as I can. And today I harvested moss from section three where I’ll be seeding and laid it over the barren turf. I absolutely love the look and when it’s edged with stones, it’ll look great.

I find, though, too long on all fours and my back starts to ache, so I switch to working on section three standing up. I’m going to switch back and forth from now on until I complete the FG. 

A workday, for me, lasts about five hours; then, I’m bagged. I haven’t done sustained physical labour like this for decades and I’m old—but my old body has toughened up from the work. I don’t hurt too much anywhere any more.

Yje west side is done between the gravel and the fence. There are Ferns in
the moss and I'll leet the small Daisies grow in this garden too.

This is the east side done.

And that mess between the east and west side sections that I've done is what
I still have left to do. I've another eight hours work to compete this garden.

Stacy joined our dog walk this morning, and she brought her man, Bryce, who turns out to be a judge who knows the only other judge I’ve ever met. Bryce was really interested in the professional arts and I love having access to so interesting a professional. We walked together the whole time and never stopped talking.

They also requested my contact information so that they can invite me to join them at a weekend party at the end of August. Nice eh?!