Flower Power

I love flowers. My garden is loaded with flowers and blooming herbs. They take priority over the vegetables as one doesn't have to worry about bugs and slugs eating them down to their roots. Less stress and maintenance.

  

 

 

In fact, flowers create a proper bee habitat and hummingbirds feast on their nectar. The hummingbirds love the foxglove, scrambled eggs, petunias, and nasturtiums.

 

 

Prior to my enlightenment (the dark ages), I used to hang those sugar-water-filled hummingbird feeders. I can't imagine processed sugar is good for little birds if it's not good for humans. I sold my hummingbird feeders in my last garage sale and now I concentrate on filling my garden with hummingbird flowers. I love watching them zoom from bloom to bloom and hear the buzz of their little wings.

 

 

The Unenlightened (people who ignorantly know nothing or very little about MCS) are always surprised when they see my garden or hear me talk about flowers. "How can you be around flowers??? Aren't you allergic to them?" It's called Multiple CHEMICAL Sensitivity not Multiple FLOWER Sensitivity! I'm deathly reactive to chemicals not natural flowers! If the flower has been sprayed with pesticides, herbicides, preservatives or any other unnatural chemical, then they are toxic. My flowers aren't. I do, however, have to admit since becoming chemically sensitive the scent of some cut flowers are so strong they bother my lungs. I think that's my overprotective brain sending me signals to watch out. I can smell strongly scented flowers outside and do just fine, but bring them in my home where they overpower the clean air and it can become quite uncomfortable.

Every summer I love cutting little bouquets of flowers to decorate my home and brighten up my office, kitchen and bathroom.

 

The yellow arrangement is so cheerful!

 

 

Nasturtiums, daisies, feverfew, dandelions, California poppies, buttercups and ferns. Notice the weed flowers??? So bright and cheerful. Most weeds are herbs that have gotten a bad reputation over the years for being so evasive. There is nothing wrong with weeds in the proper context: a vase.

In fact, dandelions must be the hardiest and healthiest of all flowers. They can grow anywhere, much to the dismay of most gardeners. Peter loves them. He knows they are very high in nutrients and strengthen kidneys. I used to have a recipe for dandelion pasta, but I was never brave enough to try it. I do what I can to control the weed flowers in my garden because they can so easily take over, but a few here and there won't hurt. In fact, I think Peter is the fault I have any at all!

 

"Chomp, chomp. It's not my fault! Chomp."

 

 

I love the purply-pink pastel flower arrangement:

This one is herbs and wildflowers: chives, yarrow, daisies, oregano, lavender, love-in-a-mist, rose campion, pink mallow and sweet woodruff.

 

 

When I first moved here I spread packets of wildflower seeds everywhere although many didn't germinate right away. Every now and then, even years later, a new species will appear and it's always such a nice surprise. If I don't know what it is I check the flower packets I've collected over the years in hopes of identification.

 

 

My love-in-a-mist (love the name!) has an interesting history.

 

The little seven-year old neighbor girl who lived next store received a free packet of love-in-a-mist seeds from her school. Her mother refused to let her plant them anywhere as she didn't want the perfection of her landscaping marred. This woman's yard was so child un-friendly her daughters were forced to play in their driveway! Beth brought them to me and begged, "You can plant them anywhere you want! They won't hurt anything." She was so worried I would think they'd ruin my landscaping. Hardly! She was so thrilled when they started blooming. I've always called them "Beth's Flowers". Such beautiful little flowers. They are Peter's favorite, too!

"Yum...loving the love-in-a-mist."

 

So happy and cheerful. Flowers are a good way to brighten your day and add joy to your life.

Herbicide Research and Chemical Company Revenge

Speaking of bees...The Organic Consumers Association just posted this article today on the sleaze of government and chemical companies. The local government destroyed a beekeepers hives without warning, killed his bees, and gave him some lame excuse. He had been researching the effects of Roundup on bees. Roundup is a deadly herbicide made by Monsanto. Monsanto didn't like that and went after him destroying years of research. Unbelievable. It's like we live in a police state....or a chemical state.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/07/05/monsanto-roundup-effects-on-honeybees.aspx?e_cid=20120715_SNLNew_MS_1

Save the Bees

The bees are disappearing in record numbers. It is said if we cannot find a solution, they will completely disappear in ten to twenty years. Agriculture is dependent on bee pollination and without bees, our food supplies will turn to food shortages endangering our very existence.

Is that jetpack a superhero complex?

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is caused by pesticides called neonicotinoids that were developed during World War II as nerve gases to support chemical warfare. The most common insecticides in this category are: acetamiprid, clothianidin, dinotefuran, imidacloprid, nitenpyram, thiamethoxam, and thiacloprid. They are sold under various brand names with cute logos not only as pesticides, but in combinations with fertilizers, herbicides and fungicides. Imidacloprid is the most common insecticide used world-wide and corn is the crop most often treated with it.

This guy sends me little cards in the mail requesting money
to support a cure for children's leukemia. Really?
The nerve of stupid people.
You can't imagine how much it irritates me.

Neonicotinoids are used on crops, golf courses, school playgrounds, parks, and residential lawns, gardens and homes. Their increased usage in the past ten years is contributing to the corresponding increases of cancer, kidney and liver disease, thyroid dysfunction, childhood learning disabilities, leukemia, and asthma. Since a dog's favorite activity is laying around on lawn, canine cancer is also on the rise.

I never see women spraying...
Hmmmmm?

The Environmental Protection Agency has done nothing but irresponsibly approve their use without the normally required testing, and the chemical industry has encouraged their overuse by up to three times the recommended limits. France and German have already imposed suspensions and are currently fighting chemical companies to ban these widely-used toxins. The United States has done nothing but aggressively protect chemical companies and their profit margins.

What you can do!! 

1.) Stop using toxic chemicals such as pesticides, fertilizers, fungicides, and herbicides on your lawns and gardens. Go organic!

2.) Stop using toxic chemical pesticides on your homes. Find healthy alternatives.

3.) Support your local organic farmers and gardeners by buying local produce directly from the growers or at farmers' markets.

4.) Write to your local politicians about the consequences of killing the bees.  Question your city's use of herbicides on roadsides and parks.

5.) Write a blog post featuring photos of your stupid neighbors.

6.) Create a bee habitat on your property or find a location for a community garden.

I've done everything in my power to create a bee-loving habitat in my yard filled with plants that attract and support bees. I hope they use it as a safe haven on their escape out of my toxic neighborhood.

Plants that attract bees:

The flowers I currently have in my garden are in bold. I have had others but many are annuals and I didn't replace them after a season.

Borage

borage (This is drugs for bees. They love it.)

butterfly weed

sweet peas

Shasta daisies

Daisies

violets

columbine

purple coneflower

asters

English lavender

Lavender
Actually this might be French. I also had Spanish lavender
but two died.

bee balm

lilac

cinquefoil

Gloriosa daisies

mint

Peppermint

nettle

dandelions

Siberian wallflowers

black-eyed Susans

California poppies

forget-me-nots

Yarrow

yarrow

cornflowers

cosmos

sunflowers

bergamot

foxglove (I've never seen foxglove on any of the bee plant lists, but bees love it, too!)

Foxglove

If you'd like to participate in The Great Sunflower Project or The Backyard Bee Count, all you need to do is grow sunflowers.  Go to www.greatsunflower.org for participation instructions.

My Favorite Flower: Salpiglossis

Signs of Life

I love spring! After a cold, dead winter, the plants you thought were gone miraculously sprout, sending bright green shoots of life up through the frozen soil. Flowers begin to bloom even in the middle of a snow storm and when you least expect it, the sun peaks through the clouds. It's all about life. I always thought it would be horrible to die in the spring when everything else is coming alive.

White Hyacinths

Blue Hyacinths

Daffodils

Narcissus with Chives

Apple Tree Leaves

Camillias

First Fern Uncurling

So beautiful to have everything come alive!


Just when you thought it was safe to go outside and enjoy the beauty...along comes DEATH.

My neighborhood is filled with ignorant people who believe it's their mission to kill anything that tries to grow.  This jerk dons his superhero jet pack and sprays down his whole yard every week. I have to make sure my windows are closed and stay inside the house for the rest of the day.

Stupid people really annoy me.

MCS Membership: Joining the Club

How do people become chemically sensitive? For some, it's long-term subtle chemical exposure to everyday poisons; for others, it's one massive overexposure experience.  Still others become chemically sensitive as a by-product of other health issues: cancer, pregnancy, mold exposure, to name a few, as our immune systems hyper-react to toxins trying to protect the body from further damage.

I was poisoned at a school where I worked. It wasn't an old school, but it's often newer construction materials using modern chemicals that create many "sick building" environments. First day on the job the carpets were being replaced. New synthetic carpets and the glues used to hold them in place are incredibly toxic and can offgas poisons for years, but old carpets harboring a very serious mold problem are deadly. This school had both. Didn't seem to bother me at the time, but everyone else was ranting about the stink. The school also had ventilation problems and three times a day bus fumes would waft through the building. Uncomfortable and making everyone sick to their stomachs, but didn't seem to bother me other than an occasional "ugh!". To camouflage the stink so we could all pretend it wasn't there, air fresheners were sprayed through the halls and staff wore copious amounts of perfume and cologne. Now THAT did me in! With the repetitive assault, my body just gave up and started defensively attacking back.

In addition, my history includes growing up surrounded by acres of perfectly manicured turf grass drenched in pesticides and herbicides, a home full of second-hand smoke, a house treated for termites, and a perfume-saturated office job where I thought I had a very bad, lingering case of the flu. For me it was a combination of long-term subtle exposure culminating in a massive overexposure that pushed me over the edge.

How did you become chemically sensitive? Share your story.