Into the woods

Yes, I did it.

K, it was the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest, and the huge poplars were worth the effort.  I did hug this one, the first that extended above the normal canopy to the sky.

And my biggest gratitude is that my body stretched itself beyond what I thought was possible, and I didn't have severe reactions...I was able to breathe (panting all the way) and walk slowly up the side of a mountain for a half mile.  And I didn't cough at all during the walk. My friend, Tim, patiently followed along, and we talked and took photos whenever we felt like it.

Tim passing one of the removed Hemlocks which had died from Wooly Adelgid blight

 Anyone else would have found it easy, but for my lungs, it was a constant push, and even in the longer hot and humid descent, no cough!

Many felled hemlocks along the way

 I may be able to go back out and walk around the marvelous trails (the easy ones of course) of these Appalachian Mountains.

Hugging a big tree, and not the biggest I'm told, but I didn't go all the way to the top of the trail.

There's not much clear area to look up to the tops of these Poplar giants

Dead Hemlocks still standing

I'll share some other of the lovely sites that we encountered on our walk tomorrow.

Today's Quote:
(yes, I'm in a poetry mode this week, so will be sharing some poems)

Nothing Gold Can Stay
by Robert Frost

 Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

there are some nights like this

Wednesday night I had a fair to poor evening.
Tried reading a book on the computer [not on line, but downloaded via a new app (er, they used to be called programs) from NC Digital Library called OverDrive...and I remember that being one of the gears that cars had, past third I believe....]  I don't have one of those tablets, so had the laptop on my lap.
Ugh, it gets heavy.  Back to the desk.
Then just quit and read another book that's the regular paper kind...ah.

But then I made a phone call, and started coughing.
It was about my usual bedtime, and the cough might start in the evening, and especially when lying down, for which I take Musinex...but this time it didn't seem to help.  I'm missed some window of treatment that works.

I didn't have any more of the "Breathe Easy" tea which usually works.  Remind self to go buy some more.

I tried the rescue inhaler, since I was having real pain in my lungs.  It helped a while...had to use the inhaler about 3 times though.

Everything I did didn't work, so I was sitting up reading or playing solitaire on the Idiot-phone till the wee hours (you know, not double digits) had come around.

So when I finally got to sleep, I didn't rest as long as I usually do until the cats said it was dawn.  There's actually a bird in the bush by the window that thinks dawn is around 5 am...which cues the cats.   I fed cats and crawled back into bed for another hour of dreams....

Panther

About cats.  And a new mall with little antique booths, and how I was going to rent the tiny one furthest in the back to sell pottery, and hopefully get another potter to share it with me...and then the cats were in my arms (both of them hate each other) and I was trying to get them through hallways, and then I noticed I had the wrong cat, this wasn't mine...so I was going all the way back through the walkways to find my right other cat, and about then the space for my booth in the back had doubled in size...and I thankfully woke up.

Muffin

Today dawned eventually and I'm looking forward to it, but have to acknowledge that my body didn't get enough rest (I usually have 9 hours) and will need a nap.  So I called a friend (Pat, thank you so much) to help with my volunteer work at the BMCA studio.

If you've read my blog through the years, even sporadically, this coughing is chronic and persistent, recurring and not anything that I can do to absolutely stop it.

For now, I'm not coughing.  I was saying that it could be asthma, according to one doc visit.  So I should take the inhaler regularly, rather than just when coughing.  That doesn't make sense to me.  So far I haven't done it.  But so far I have more bad nights than good ones.  When I have a good one I can actually spend the next day doing pretty much what most people do.  Otherwise I feel like a wet dishrag, just dragging around with little interest in anything.

I've almost finished the Physical Therapy for my shoulder, and feel so wonderful when I do the exercises he gave me...my whole body is flexible again.  Until you're sedentary like I've been lately, you don't know how great I feel to move most of the muscles in my trunk...hips, shoulders, twist, bend, turn...oh it's glorious.

Moving and breathing.  I'm so grateful when I'm able to do both.