You Are My Sunshine

Well, I'm finally back and with photos!! Just a few pics to show how things have really sprang forth over the past week or so. I've a bit of catching up to do however, with pics of the garden and chicken coop. Progress has been made on each front when I am not busy potting.
Generally, I prefer the Japanese iris over these Dutch or 'bearded' iris but these are quite stunning.

They have really gone bonkers this year. Someone gave these to me and so I have been able to continue adding to this bed without spending much money. I like seeing just how many flowers I can scrounge. The yellow ones you see are basically just a weed around these parts that I cultivate. They don't normally bloom so profusely but then most people mow them down. If given some fertile ground and encouraged they really become full. I like them.

The dragons are out in force again! It took a little while but they are really blooming also. Sometimes there are so many flitting about I can't even begin to get a count on them. I have tried to make them feel welcome because they eat so many pests. However, I read the other day, they also will eat bees! Not a good thing. But, I guess you got to take the good with the bad sometimes. They apparently don't like to hassle with bumbles though because I have more of those than I care for! Nah, I like the bumbles... but they also like my pressure treated lumber. We are going to have to come to some sort of agreement over that!

On another note, I found something out the other day that was quite surprising. I had gone in a couple of weeks ago for my yearly exam and the results came back from my blood work. I have a fairly significant vitamin D deficiency. At first I could not figure out how. I mean, I'm in the sun all the time. But then it hit me; yeah, but I wear sunscreen. Completely blocks your body from producing D. I don't wear it as much now (because it is shady in much of the areas I work at home) but when I worked construction we practically just had to wear it or we would have roasted ourselves. Many of the jobs offered no shade at all. Nothing but bare concrete reflecting the sun back up on you, so we all wore lots of screen. I tried the natural stuff too but if it protects against burning it's not allowing the other either. So, I looked up what foods we get D from. Fish and beef liver mostly. Bleh. I don't care much for either of those. Some comes from eggs but not enough for me apparently. I had noticed that over the past couple of years I have been having some major bone and muscle pain but just figured it was my work. And seemed my forgetfulness and fuzzy thinking had been getting worse. I hope that I can blame all these things on the lack of D; they are the common symptoms. If I can, then that means they will get better now that I am taking a supplement. I hope so.
So, ya'll that use a lot of sunscreen keep this in mind. I would have never made the connection between the symptoms and the deficiency if I had not had that blood work done.

Oh yeah, how is the new layout and design? Please, please tell me if this blog is ever hard for you to view or read. I had been think for some time that the old one was a little hard to read but wasn't sure. I assure you, I will not get upset. Having funky colors or something is one thing. That is a personal preference, but simply making the posts legible is my duty to you.