Lightning, Hail, Teasel, the Tour de France and…..the Claw

This summer has been all about the weather. Thunderstorms day after day. Rain in between thunderstorms. If I had the interest, I could watch mold form on bread in real time. Wet doesn’t begin to describe our micro climate.

100_6365.JPG

We have also had hail. Lots of it.

100_6368.JPG

Hail saves time in the kitchen as it makes for pre-shredded salads.

100_6370.JPG

During a particular hail storm last weekend, the farm was also struck by lightning.

For some reason, I happened to be looking when the bolt hit at the top of the drive. Whoa! It took out our power and also destroyed our internet router. This storm also brought a microburst to the other side of our town. Big groups of old trees were lost. This left the power company in over their heads with problems. It took awhile for us to get power back.

It also took us several days to get a new router up and going. Staffers scattered all over town to pick up email from other people’s computers.

When the sun finally came out on Friday, it felt as euphoric as sunshine after six months of arctic winter. We were positively giddy!

100_6360.JPG

Finally a chance to make Teasel Flower Essence!

100_6352.JPG

Somewhat reminiscent of the marvelous cleanser Bee Balm, each Teasel blossom resembles a sliver and recedes deeply into the Flower head, Each Flower head has bands of Flowers in different places. Some Flower heads have two bands top and bottom, some a more central band like this one in the photograph. I was guided to use a great diversity of Flower heads with different band placements when I made this Essence. I know this band difference holds much significance for this Flower Essence, referencing as it does the different chakras.

100_6381.JPG

Here is what I mean about the blossoms extending like slivers into the spiky core of this Flower head. And spiky is an understatement for Teasel. It’s almost impossible to touch this plant without getting pricked!

Right off the bat, this Essence is going to be added to our Flee Free and Golden Armor mixes, but I doubt it will stop there. This one is an immense powerhouse of wisdom and strength!

Well… it is raining again. These gray days certainly make it easier to find the time to do my hand exercises. I have been upgraded by my hand therapist to a new splint torture device dubbed “the Claw.” It bends my wrist in a contorted position and looks as uncomfortable as it feels. This new tool was necessary because, despite my diligent hours doing all my exercises, the severity of the break is leaving it difficult to regain the function of my wrist. The motion of flexing is proving particularly hard to regain.

My hand therapist is hopeful that “the Claw” will help me slowly regain more degrees of flexing movement. When I am not doing specific stretching and bending exercises for extension, flexing, supination and the rest, I am meant to wear “the Claw.” This is further motivation to do the other exercises since they offer a variety of torture sensations while “the Claw” holds me in the same torture position.

One perk of this exercise time is that I have become an idiot savant when it comes to the Tour de France. Since I have hours of exercise to do each day and the Tour de France lasts for hours each day, it’s a match made in heaven. William and Jim, the original sports encyclopedias, have been stunned by my mysterious prowess at recognizing a tour rider by his calves, his style on the pedals, or his placement in the autobus behind the pelaton. I toss off fun facts faster than Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwin. In fact, it’s as if I am telepathically connected to these announcers, frequently making the same sage comments about some cyclist only seconds before they say the same thing. It could have been “Ask Mollske” instead of “Ask Bobske” on Versus
each night. It has been my sports shining hour. I am the household guru of cycling. And it only took a hundred plus hours of Tour watching to earn this crown.

Too bad the Tour finishes today with Carlos Sastre of the fabulous CSC pulling off a somewhat unexpected yellow jersey win over Silence Lotto’s Cadel Evans. Oh my gosh. My list of hand exercises gets longer and more complex every time I see my dear hand therapist Cindy. What’s a woman on a healing mission with a new Tour addiction to do????

Thank God the Olympics are just days away. My man Mark Cavendish of Team Columbia is expected to bring home the gold in the sprint races in Beijing and I will be there. Me and my Claw.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.