Continuing spring inspired vases

 I started going through files of my vases I've made. Here are a few to share here...just to enjoy springtime!

Geranium inspired

North Carolina triliums

I saw my first Swallowtail butterfly (not a Monarch) on Sunday at Lake Tomahawk! Couldn't capture a photo as it was pretty fast.

By Rachel

Sharing with Floral Friday Fotos and Michelle's Thankful Thursday

I donated this large vase to an auction to raise funds.

Then there's a face vase!

A pitcher serves often as a vase

My Texas roots still appreciate Blue Bonnets

A series of tiny celadon vases

A tiny bloom, no bigger than my phone

A lemniscate on a black, white and grey vase. For a wedding present.

I was honored to have my vase included in the publicity, middle of top row.

I did do a series of "O'Keefe style poppies" on various pieces. 

When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.

MAYA ANGELOU Rainbows are gay space lasers. That's why they're not straight. Oliver Markus Malloy @ommalloy Thanks to Cloudia’s post.

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On Wednesday as I drove home on I-40 eastbound toward Black Mountain, I passed under two overpasses covered with various first responder vehicles with all their lights flashing...probably 8 ambulances on one, and the other at Swannanoa had this flag. They were honoring a former Fire Chief who had recently died. The procession in his honor was probably coming toward me from Black Mountain, so I didn't see it as I turned off the highway.

Looking back and ahead

 

This was just in April 2020, and 10,000 had already died in the US. A time before vaccines were available. A time of fear, isolation, losing all social contacts. Our church just started doing video services, and the choir sang individually and the director sewed their efforts together with "Garage Band" for the final presentation ...all on line.

Thank you so much health care workers, first responders!

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I had the experience of having a heart attack in May of 2020, with all the new protocols in place in the hospital for COVID. I blogged about it as a memory, and when I experienced it.

But when I recently (April 2025) had pneumonia with 4 days of hospitalization, I was again reminded of the experiences with COVID precautions all over the place. After all, I was on the respiratory wing. They wouldn't let me walk in the halls because there were current COVID patients.

We (patients and staff) were mostly masked  when I had to go to the ultra-sound lab. I was lying in a bed, and met some interesting people in "transport."  There seemed to be a contest to have the weirdest hair colors and tattoos, men and women!

Some of the nurses said they'd been there in 2020 when COVID struck the first time, when nobody had a vaccination, when masks were being worn mainly by first responders because there weren't enough in the beginning for every person who might have been exposed.

I remember reading about social contamination, as that was the only way people could avoid it. That was before we learned how often it was contracted from people without symptoms yet, so it was kind of a losing battle.

Standing 6 feet from the person in front of you in line was not only recommended, there were painted foot prints to stand upon.

The news was full of photos of the refrigerated semi-trailers being used as morgues at hospitals...in US cities as well as all over the world. We had vaccines finally...and when we heard some were available in Asheville, a friend and myself drove a long way across town to get in line, in our car, waiting to get our shots. Both of us were in our late 70s and kind of wanted to be around for a while.

So I'd go find places to get my yearly shots (flu and COVID) in the fall each year. But there were new strains of each that had developed, so often people would get really sick each year. 

I live near a fire station and a couple of highways so hear first responders going out by their sirens often. 

Many thanks to those who spend hours each week caring for others, either with fires, accidents, or illnesses.

Today my heart goes out to the thousands of residents of Canada who have had to evacuate due to the wild fires there.

Manitoba, Canada

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And looking forward:

The GOP in our House of Representatives in Washington would like to cut Medicaid by their budget proposal (The Big Beautiful Bill).  

And the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says the cuts mean more than 10.3 million Americans will lose health care coverage.

[The GOP] claims that the proposed cuts of more than $700 billion in Medicaid funding over the next ten years is designed only to get rid of the waste and fraud in the program. Thus, they say, they are actually strengthening Medicaid for those who need it.

But, as Linda Qiu noted in the New York Times today, most of the bill’s provisions have little to do with the “waste, fraud, and abuse” Republicans talk about. They target Medicaid expansion, cut the ability of states to finance Medicaid, force states to drop coverage, and limit access to care. And the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says the cuts mean more than 10.3 million Americans will lose health care coverage.

Heather Cox Richardson's Letters from an American

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Something else to be concerned about:

"The fact that simple drones (of the Ukraine) could wipe out a third of Russia’s bomber fleet in a single day raise serious questions about the long term viability of its nuclear arsenal. The U.S. and Russia will now scramble to reassess vulnerabilities in the age of drone warfare. In the meantime, the rules of M.A.D.—mutually assured destruction—may not fully apply. And that means we are in a highly destabilized moment.

Here’s another eye-popping fact: These FPV drones cost only around $500 or $600 each, but the damage done to the Russian bomber fleet is estimated at around $7 billion. Many of these are no longer in production and can’t be replaced.

We’ve truly entered a new age of asymmetrical warfare."

The Status Kuo, Monday June 2, 2025

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Today's quote:

All one's life as a young woman one is on show, a focus of attention, people notice you. You set yourself up to be noticed and admired. And then, not expecting it, you become middle-aged and anonymous. No one notices you. You achieve a wonderful freedom. It's a positive thing. You can move about unnoticed and invisible.

 -Doris Lessing, novelist, poet, playwright, Nobel laureate (1919-2013)

Tiny vase for single bloom!

Just 4 years ago...

I've been thinking about how it was just 4 years ago.

If you're a kid, it probably seems a lifetime ago.

But for me, I feel that yesterday suddenly our world was turned upside down, millions of people were dying, and nobody had a cure. All the restaurants suddenly closed. All the retail outlets closed. Grocery store shelves were bare. Nobody who was in the entertainment industry had a job any more...at least live entertainment. You just didn't go where other people would also be inside with you.

We suddenly wanted to eat outside on patios (when we first went back to restaurants.) Doors all had signs on them, masks were required.

It was the COVID-19 pandemic.

And so far, it's escaped TV shows. But believe me, at some time, there will be a show with the setting (medical perhaps) and the background of the early days of the pandemic.

I just found a memory on Facebook, which they somehow cull through to give me just a few of the ones I posted...but this one was about how to deal with the virus when you caught it.

Good advice from a nurse on Twitter if you should get the virus:

I know we’re all tired of hearing/talking about it, but one thing I HAVEN’T really seen going around is advice for what happens if you DO get coronavirus (many of us will), only advice for how to try to AVOID it.

So as your friendly neighborhood RN, a wee thread:

Things you should *actually* buy ahead of time (Erm, not sure what the obsession with toilet paper is?): Kleenex, Acetaminophen (Tylenol) in 325 mg tablets, Ibuprofen (Advil) in 200 mg tablets, Mucinex, Robitussin or DayQuil/NyQuil, whatever your cough medicine of choice is.

If you don’t have a humidifier, that would also be a good thing to get. (You can also just turn the shower on hot and sit in the bathroom breathing in the steam). Also a good time to make a big batch of your favorite soup to freeze and have on hand.

If you have a history of asthma and you have a prescription inhaler, make sure the one you have isn’t expired and refill it/get a new one if it is.

You basically just want to prepare as though you know you’re going to get a nasty respiratory bug like bronchitis or pneumonia. You just have the foresight to know it’s coming.

For symptom management, use the meds I mentioned. For a fever over 101, alternate Tylenol and Advil so you’re taking a dose of one or the other every 3 hours. Use both cough suppressants and expectorants (most cough meds have both). Drink a ton, hydrate hydrate. Rest lots.

You should not be leaving your house except to go to the doctor, and if you do, wear a mask (regular is fine, you don’t need an N95). You DO NOT NEED TO GO TO THE ER unless you are having trouble breathing or your fever is very high and unmanaged with meds.

90% of healthy adult cases thus far have been managed at home with basic rest/hydration/over-the-counter meds. We don’t want to clog the ERs unless you’re actually in distress. The hospital beds will be used for people who actively need oxygen/breathing treatments/IV fluids.

If you have a pre-existing lung condition (COPD, emphysema, lung cancer) or are on immunosuppressants, now is a great time to talk to your PCP or specialist about what they would like you to do if you get sick. They might have plans to get you admitted and bypass the ER entirely.

One major relief to you parents is that kids do VERY well with coronavirus— they usually bounce back in a few days, no one under 18 has died, and almost no kids have required hospitalization (unless they have a lung disease like CF). Just use pediatric dosing of the same meds.

(If you want to share, copy and paste.)

And (knock on wood) I've not yet had the virus. Incidentally, this nurse was wrong, as many kids did get very sick with COVID.

I got to have a heart attack. Not until May 15, 2020. So the protocols were in place for COVID when I went through ER. But since I have a chronic cough with my COPD, it was confusing for them. For hours I was in isolation, because the hospital had run out of COVID testing supplies, and they would have to send the test out to a lab which might take a day for results. Then my Dr. said to get my test done immediately and it was negative. (I had no fevers, and just pain in my neck and shoulders as heart attack signs.) But of course my blood work kept showing something that they know indicates a heart attack. I depend upon labs...because we all know a heart attack in a woman presents differently than a man. No numb left arm, no sweaty clamy face, etc.

Anyway, 4 days later I went home with a stent on my heart and lots of new meds to take, most for the rest of my life.

But I was right there with these front line care teams. I got to see them at work, seriously overworked, since there were so many patients coming into hospitals. Did they have enough beds? I got shuffled around a few times...so they were working on that.

And I remember just 4 years ago, Millions of People Died from COVID in the pandemic.

Millions of first responders worked above and beyond, as well as care teams in medicine.

I won't forget.

And here are some good links from PBS' NOVA giving some not-so-current information about the pandemic.

Covid and Climate Change for breathing- by Drew Lanham, ornothologist and conservationist in 2021

Lingering Symptoms from COVID-19 are “Unprecedented” published 2021

I think I'm going to go looking elsewhere for more recent findings. I'm quite sure the medical professionals have been studying this virus for the whole 4 years it's been around.

Today's quote:

It’s precisely the people who are considered the least “likely” leaders who end up inspiring others the most. Everyday people and everyday acts of courage eventually change everything.

AI-JEN POO