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Much of a muchness
Things that make you go 'hmm'…
Please look away if you are of a nervous disposition….
Posted by on June 11, 2008
I am not one of life’s natural green fingered, gardening types. Don’t get me wrong, I like having a nice garden, I just don’t particularly enjoy the process of getting it nice. I have a chap who is supposed to be my gardener but he is so busy at this time of year, the most he manages is keeping the lawn under control. Last year, I planted some Irises and some Arum Lilies on my river bank and the gardener strimmed them to death before I had time to mention I had planted them. Recently, I ventured out and planted some lily of the valley plants under my lime tree. Unfortunately, they went the same way as the lilies and irises….
The gardener also doesn’t plant out the pots and planters in the garden so once a year, I deck myself in old clothes and gardening gloves and spend a day planting marguerites, geraniums and lavender and getting very grubby. Have I mentioned I hate having dirty finger nails…
When I had finally finished, I had a shower and noticed that my knee was a bit itchy. This morning, I awoke and my knee was VERY itchy. Look away at this point if you are of a nervous disposition….
I have a huge blistery bite thingy on my knee which has been driving me insane with itchiness all day. I knew I wasn’t cut out for gardening…. A friend said it was probably a spider which had laid eggs under the skin and as we speak, hundreds of little spiderettes are hatching and growing….I think he knows I am a hypochondriac and was just teasing – wasn’t he?
I watched the Stella Artois tennis championships on TV this afternoon. ( to try and take my mind off the itching). Rafael Nadal was playing and he beat Jonas Bjorkman 6-2, 6-2 . He seems to have recovered after beating Roger Federer in the final of the French Open, and to have adapted to playing on grass (after the clay at Roland Garros), with no difficulty at all.
During a break in play they showed this little clip of Rafael Nadal exercising on court before the match. Watch it and weep…
This guy has muscles in places I don’t even have places!
You will have noticed that yet again, I have done no bookbinding. Well, the sun was shining, the tennis was on, I had a poorly knee….oh dear, and it can only get worse as the summer progresses…
This word is turning into a bit of a buzz word over here, isn’t it? Still, two posts in two days can’t be bad….
Much of a muchness 
I think that thing on your knee might be poison ivy. Do you think that is possible?
I don’t think we have that in the UK, I’ve only ever heard of it in American films and books :-)
I’m still working on the tarantula bite theory….. :-D
I’m normally just a lurker, but I had something similar and finally went to a doctor — he drew a circle around it with a pen so that we could make sure it wasn’t growing in size, then prescribed some hefty drugs just to make sure it wasn’t something like a staph infection (on top of the spider bite). I don’t mean to alarm you, but please do keep an eye on it and it gets any larger, please seek medical attention immediately. Love your books. I’ll go back to lurking now. Stiff upper lip. Carry on. ;-)
Looks like something had you for lunch! Is it a blister or a swollen bite? Either way, it feels itchy from here. Payback for my needle photo? lol :) Beautiful flowers, btw. You’ve got something special there.
no Diane ..
I don’t think you are a hypochondriac…..
it does look like some sort of bite though and I would be getting it checked out at the doctors …
you’re doing pretty great for a non gardener !!
beautiful blooms :)
oh I like your related posts widget addition …now why hasn’t blogger got one of those :(
I knew you were a witch ….. it’s your third nipple bubbling up ‘Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble.”
My mother used to plant out stuff and then my father would come along a bit later and weed them – he always looked so pleased with himself for helping as well – bless ………
Aha!! That’s why I don’t do garden, not that we have a garden anyway, but I don’t really like caterpillars and wriggly worms and garden is where they’re thriving best!
Hope that blister healing soon…
Gina – I have to admit it is slightly better today, I think the swelling is going down a bit. My upper lip is stiff but my bottom lip is quivering slightly….glad to have you lurking – feel free to comment any time :-)
Pete – it’s a blister with two smaller ones next to it (the starter, the main course and dessert maybe?) Ha! It is payback for that scary IV photoyou posted yesterday – hope you are recovering well.
Kim – they only look like that because they are fresh from the garden centre….give them a couple of weeks with me and it will be a very different story!
The related posts widgets is something that WordPress has started doing automatically – some interesting (if off the wall) things appear there!
DP – third nipple? on my knee?
Me and the gardener sound like your mum and dad – I plant, he strims. If he does it again I’m going to take his strimmer off him – boys and their toys!
Lady in red – I too am very cautious about creepy crawlies – don’t like them at all. Picked up a pot the other day and it was full of wood lice – nearly dropped it with shock :-)
Great flower pictures. As far as the bite goes, it does look very uncomfortable.
Don’t worry about the books. I have been worse with my writing. It has picked up in the past couple days because I have a writing group meeting coming up, but I have still been bad :(
I wouldn’t be able to tell from the gorgeous flowers you produce that you don’t like gardening. I don’t like dirt under the nails either, but it can’t be helped if I want to eat fresh veggies, unfortunately. De-hulling the strawberries makes it look like I’ve been bleeding profusely around my nails too. :P
I have to say to DP that one shouldn’t knock weeding until one has done it for hours in hot, humid weather. It is every bit as difficult as planting. ;)
Poison ivy was my first thought too. Are you sure it hasn’t made its way to England yet?
dh and I realized just last nights that we were so busy and flakey we completely missed the finals for the French Open…can you believe it? So, Nadal beat Federer; who won the women’s? We both laughed so hard at your comment about Nadal’s muscles.
I would say you are allergic to whatever it was that bit you – I think you should see a doc because it looks liable to become infected even if it isn’t already. Brian had several bites which went this way (he got them years ago in Cornwall) and he had to visit the hospital for treatment every day until they cleared up! Don’t wish to alarm you but I’m sure the doc won’t mind looking at your knee . . . Gardening is obviously a dangerous hobby! Hope you feel better soon
Paul – It’s itching like a demon but seems to be calming down finally…
I wonder what the bookbinding version of writers’ block is? Binders block?
Teresa – as I said earlier, the plants are only nice because I haven’t had chance to kill them yet…..
Ana Ivanovic won the ladies title. I like her a lot so was very glad she won…
Jen – gardening is dangerous, if the bugs don’t sting you they frighten you to death by appearing unexpectedly and as for picking up a slug by mistake – eugh!
Leg didn’t drop off in the night as expected and knee is slightly better today so I think I am over the worst. Still got some gardening to do though. It’s relentless – never ending. Like housework with added creepy crawlies :-)
Yes, Diane, but you know you’re doing something right to even get them to this stage of loveliness. I know plenty of people who manage to kill the plants as seedlings, with nary a bloom ever seeing the light of day. ;)
Beautiful flowers. I don’t know much about flowers – growing up in a semi tropical part of Australia – but I do love taking ultra close up pics of them.
I hope the blister feels better!
I bet you have some gorgeous flowers in semi tropical Australia! There is something very satisfying about taking close up shots of flowers, isn’t there?
Hi Diane
How’s your knee, eww spiders biting as if their leggy hairyness wasn’t enough. Looks like an alergic reaction to what ever did much you though. Wave it at a Dr if it doesn’t go soon. Follow the link on my blog to Suzi Blu’s blog she had poison Ivy recently and has plenty of pics of what it did to her.
Get well soon
Billie
http://www.billiescraftroom.wordpress.com
Knee is getting better but the blister has still not gone away :-(
I talked to the pharmacist yesterday and she reckoned it might be a ‘Blandford Fly’ bite as I live by water and was bitten in the middle of the day – on the legs – all things that suggest this particular horrid little bug. Just wish the little beastie would stay over in Blandford where it belongs!
Ohh poor you, just to make you feel a little better the good news is that I mentioned this to hubby and he said no UK spiders bite well not enought to puncture human skin any way.
He has come out in sympathy with you though, he got bitten by a mosquito at the weekend and his hand has swollen up he reacts very badly to insect bites and can’t take antihistamine tablets. He uses an antihistamine cream on the site so maybe if you can’t take the tablets either try that.
Get well soon
Billie xx
Well, that’s a relief! I HATE spiders! I’d hate to think that they had big teeth as well as too many hairy legs – eugh!
Hope hubby’s bite is better. I hate mosquitoes too- nasty little critters. What are they for anyway? :-)
Poor Diane! Don’t things like that and all the creepy-crawlies in even a habitat as civilized as a cultivated garden tell us who are the real masters of this planet? ;-)
BTW, has anyone seen the latest Indiana Jones – thinking of the ants …
I saw the Indiana Jones movie a week or so ago, it’s very good – the ants were very scary though, I must admit!
your knee looks just like some bites (6!!) i got on friday near wareham. I have been reliably informed these are blandford fly bites – and mine have blistered and weepy the same – got antibiotics in the end…. hope yours healing ok.
Hi,
My son Ethan had a thing on his skin just like yours!! The Dr. just said it was a burn, but he never could have gotten burned. Where it was on his stomach and what we did that day he could have never gotten burned, so we couldn’t figure out what it was. Did you ever find out anything?we were thinking it was a spider bite. ..? Hope your better now. My son is, but he has a red circle still there.
Laur
Sorry about your son, this post was written a couple of years ago but I was bitten again recently read this post
“A blistering time”
The nurse thought it was just insect bites and I had a bad reaction to them (other friends were also bitten but just had small red marks)
The two blisters grew so big, they actually joined into one uber-blister! I ended up having to burst it with a sterilized needle and I now have a large pink scar. I also took antibiotics as I was told it was a bacterial infection.
I hope Ethan has recovered and doesn't get bitten again. Hope this helps.