Slowly but surely

It's been a while since I was last here, so updating my tragic life might take a few posts. If I'm lucky. Winter has been survived once again, albeit a much more mild winter than we had since I've been in Sweden. We had about a week of really cold temps but other than that it has all been largely uneventful, weatherwise. The spring melt has also passed without much drama. Usually we get quite a lot of surface flooding when the ice and snow melt but the permafrost underneath is still fozen. This year the surface and sub-surface seemed to melt at about the same time, giving the surface water somewhere to drain away to. That's good because I do hate getting wet.

 

The downside (and there is always a downside in my life) is that pollen season is now full on. Pollens never bothered me for 40 years but it is a different story now. That being said, while I do feel a bit miserable, I don't think that I'm nearly as badly affected as I was during our first summer here. I'm a bit of a fan of the whole "mind over matter" theory. The first few summer I thought that I was getting a cold. I hadn't had allergy reactions before so assumed that it was a head cold on the way. So I would start feeling miserable, as one would with a head cold. And it invariably tuned into a head cold. Now that I know what the symptoms are, I tell myself that it's just the normal seasonal reaction, pop an allergy pill, and I'm good to go again. Now, I'm not silly enough to believe that the power of the mind can kill a virus or bacteria. If you really have a head cold then you really have a head cold. But I do think that you can sometimes enhance a situation through a pre-conceived notion. About 10 years ago, out of nwhere, I suddenly developed a fear of heights. No idea how or why. It got to the point where I would feel uneasy inside a building. Even if I couldn't see out, I knew how tall the building was and felt accordingly. Completely bizarre. Anyway, it has taken me a few years, but I've now finally convinced myself that it was all my own making and it was time to take back control. Not a 100% cure, but it has most disappeared today. The transformation of my allergy symptoms into a head cold was, I believe, also largely in my head (pardon the pun). I'm going hard at it this year to see if I'm right or wrong, so I'll keep you all updated.

 

The summer mosquitoes haven't arrived as yet. A situation I am relishing. I have gotten used to heights again, but I don't think I will ever accept the mossies. The good news is that I don't think that I will ever get lost out in the forests. If anyone ever does start looking for me, all they need to do is to follow the overpowering stench of mosquito repellant.