Nature Therapy – How This Spoonie Deals With Stress

It seems that everyone has a theory or program to make you feel better. They advertise special herbal food or therapy or natural remedies that will solve all your health problems. Heck, my family and friends often tell me about people they know that have lupus and aren’t as sick as me or did this great thing to cure them. All this unsolicited medical advice drives me crazy! To get away from this craziness and to de-stress, I wander through the 40 acres my parents own.

It was beautiful today; about 65 degrees and sunny. There are not many mosquitoes out yet, but I do still smell of bug spray. I also covered myself with sunscreen and my sun clothing. Got to protect this lupie from the sun!

In our yard we have an apple tree. I can’t tell you what kind it is other than the apples we get from it are kind of sour. It’s for the birds. The orioles love it. This apple tree is in full bloom right now. You can hear the bees buzzing from blossom to blossom collecting the nectar. The wind has knocked some of the petals off the flowers and there is a carpet of pink on the bright green grass. Bella paused in them before running off down the trail ahead of me.

Mom and dad have made trails through the woods for us to walk on. They are clear for the most part and we enjoy using them in both summer and winter. The canopy of the trees provides shade from the sun. This keeps the temperature down and keeps my skin out of the sun.

As I walk though the shady oak trees, I hear birds of all kinds singing. They are calling out to each other with their happy whistles. I’m sure some are looking for their mating partner. We seem to have the same pairs of cardinals visiting us every year. They feed from our bird feeders and sing to us. My favorites are the orioles because I think their song is the prettiest. The boys are bright orange. That seems odd since they like to eat the oranges we put out more than the grape jelly.

I never thought I’d take a picture of dandelions and think they look beautiful.

But they do, surrounded by the grass and looking up and the blue sky peppered with fluffy white clouds. I’m glad they are in the woods and not in our yard! This is right by a huge patch of wild raspberries. They look like they will offer us a large crop again this year. I use them on smoothies. I still have some in the freezer from last summer. I spent hours picking them. Bella would snack on the right off the bush. Yes, my dog loves berries!

I have a thing for birch trees. I love their papery bark that peals off. It’s white speckled with black that leads to their green round leaves. Those leaves sound like wind chimes when they are blowing in the breeze. While I was taking this picture, Bella was swimming. We’ve had a lot of rain this spring and that combined with all the snow that melted has made puddles everywhere. There are trails that I cannot travel on without puddle boots. Bella doesn’t let the water stop her!

One thing we have growing all through out the woods are ferns. People try to get these to grow in their shady parts of their yards and we have them all over the woods. They have an interesting way of growing. Curling their way up out of the ground. It makes the woods look green over the brown ground covered with leaves from the fall. I hear the leaves crunching under my feet as I walk along.

We have an area, in our ‘field’, that is covered by wild strawberry plants. We don’t know where they came from. All we know is they are all in bloom right now and we hope that we get the berries before the birds and deer do.

On the way back to the house I continue to pass through the trees enjoying the shade provided by all the trees. The birds are still singing and Bella is checking out a pile of brush just in case there is a chipmunk in it. She is hoping for the day that she gets to ‘play’ with one. I’m sure it will look a lot like her stuffed toys after she disembowel them. I’m not looking forward to that.

Once we get back, Bella heads across the yard toward the neighbor’s house. She needs a good swim to cool her off. On the way back we pass some wild roses. I’ve tried to dig these bushes up and replant them in the yard, but they always die. I can only enjoy them on our walks. Once we get back in the yard’ I crash in to a chair. I’ve done my assigned 60 minutes of exercise prescribed by my doctor. I’ll be back at it tomorrow and the day after that and after that and so on…..

*You can enjoy my beautiful pictures. I was trying some techniques I learned from my son. He has some assignments for his communications class and had to take pictures different ways. I like it.