Edmonton's vegetation decided that a day of blizzards was just what it needed to really thrive. Shortly after the snowstorm of last week, everything really started to bud and to bloom. My favorites have been the budding green trees near the promenade downtown:
My little cellphone cam doesn't do it justice, but the rich emerald of the leaves against the sombre browns of the branches makes the whole scene seem to just glow, like these plants have been transported to our world from the bioluminescent forests of Pandora.
I always have preferred forests to gardens, trees to flowers, but even I have to enjoy the beauty of an entire tree so overloaded with petals that it looks like it's about to burst, raining flowers over the street.
Of course, all of this comes with a price. Those flowers aren't there to be admired by us, but to facilitate a frenzy of plant gametes seeking each other out for reproduction. My body, possibly as the result of antibiotics when I was young, has decided to treat these gametes as dangerous entities, and enters a full histamine lockdown. Allergies.
I've been taking loratadine for several months now, so I've actually been pretty good on the sneezing and itching part of allergy season. But recently, it has been quite warm in my apartment, leading me to make the foolish decision to open my window at night. For days, I found myself groggy and without energy or motivation, until I remembered that I basically set myself up to inhale allergens all night every night. I've closed my window for the last couple of nights and my motivation is getting a lot better.
Not that it's wise to pick on a single possible reason for these kinds of things. I am living alone and unemployed right now, a situation ripe for psychological issues which can sneak up gradually. So while it's good to realize that I need to keep the window closed at night, I also need to make sure I tag the psychological points: physical, willpower, emotional, and social.
So let's fire up those check-ins again.
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