Plodding Along

 This morning I had a nerve conduction test and electromyogram on each of my legs. The physiatrist said I had no neuropathy in my legs, but that my L4 and L5 nerve roots in my lower back have damage. 

This is not a big surprise as the MRI seemed to indicate they were badly pinched. 

This afternoon I finally met the orthopedic spine specialist who has been overseeing my case. I had only met the nurse practitioner on the 5 previous visits. I can't say that it was a helpful visit.

 He asked if the epidural injections done in June provided pain relief. When I said I felt no relief, he said that was very rare. Because I have severe stenosis (narrowing) at two of the lumbar levels, he said maybe the steroid did not get up around the nerve roots. I am to try transforaminal injections that come in from the side where the roots exit the spine. I will hear from the pain management doctor early next week to schedule these. 

My impression is that the spine doctor considers me a "problem" patient because I have multiple levels of degeneration, and if he did surgery he would have to work on the scoliosis above as well to maintain stability. I think he hopes the transforaminal injections will confirm my main pain generators. Then he would have a good idea how to provide help through surgery. I am to see him again in 4-6 weeks; on the 5th week he is on vacation. So I will see him on September 6th.

We talked about trying gabapentin but he decided against that. Maybe the steroid will help this time. I am not hopeful of any long-term relief.

 I plod along in pain with limitations to what I can do. I have read enough on the internet to understand the quandary of how to help people with multi-level problems and be confident that significant results will happen. Everything moves along so slowly.

Elkhart County Quilt Gardens

 Our days are heating up with a fair amount of humidity. Today we drove to some of the Elkhart County quilt gardens. Sonya Nash who works for the Convention and Visitors Bureau spoke at the Winona Literary Club; she told us how the bureau provides the plants/flowers to the sites once they have decided which pattern they will be displaying. Through several years of experience she now knows how to calculate the exact amount for each pattern. This year there are 17 sites with quilt gardens using almost 1 million blooms. We visited 6 quilt gardens today.

I think the "quilt" at Wellfield Botanic Gardens had the lushest flowers and because they provided an elevated platform it provided the best photo opportunity.

Along with the flowers, this year sculptures by Seward Johnson are part of the displays. The city of Warsaw, Indiana had some of his sculptures several years ago.

We started at the Elkhart County Courthouse in Goshen.

The "quilt" was named Joseph's Coat.

We drive by this courthouse fairly often when visiting Goshen.

Our second stop was completely new to us: Elkhart Environmental Center. Apparently, this site is used to teach school classes and I guess other groups about conservation, etc.

Pattern is Sunflower by Twilight.

The Seward Johnson figure even has a band aid on his arm.

We walked a short trail through the wetlands. Every so often I would hear a non-human noise in the brush (besides the birds) or hear a plop as something went into the water. I did end up with two mosquito bites. If we were to return I would wear repellant. 

The parking lot had wildflowers/native vegetation.

Next we visited Elkhart Central Park near the Saint Joseph River. This spot has a plaque so I think it has participated in the quilt gardens a long time.

Pattern name: Double Tulips.

Seward Johnson figure:

Not far from Wellfield gardens is Ruthmere built in 1908.

The mansion has tours but was closed on Mondays. I took a photo of a garden plot near the open back gate where a man was mowing, but I don't think it was the official quilt garden.

Our last stop was Linton's Enchanted Gardens a retail store and plant store. We had been here several years back, and there was a quilt garden at that time though that was not why we visited. This year's "quilt" was Kaleidoscope Blooms.

Here we encountered Marilyn Monroe.

We bought two small tables for our front porch. The existing one had mosaic tiles and was crumbling apart.

These are made to look like mosaics but are not individual tiles, just glass with a grid overlaid.

I had originally thought we might go to Das Essenhaus in Middlebury to see the quilt garden and to eat lunch. My husband reminded me to check hours/days open last night as he thought it was closed on Mondays. Yes, it is. So we had a sandwich at Linton's and then headed for home. 

We have been wanting to go to Nappanee to see some new stores; we will probably do that when it is cooler. Nappanee also has a quilt garden. 

Fleurs and New Books

 

My neighbor called to remind me that I was welcome to cut and take some of her hydrangeas. I had planned to do so on July 4th, but the grass was too wet. Yesterday afternoon I selected 3 blossoms. I tried to take them from different spots so there wouldn't be a "blank" spot on her bushes. As I entered my sliding door I saw that my backdoor neighbor was cutting some, also. I am sure he had been given the same invitation. Unfortunately he cut blooms right next to each other. Sure enough there is now part of the bush without any blooms.

 The pink flower below is also a hydrangea. This grows next to the west side of my house; it never puts out many blossoms. There must be a variety of hydrangeas. The pink one looks nothing like the big fluff-ball Annabelle ones.

The 4 books pictured with the blue hydrangea vase I bought Saturday morning at a Warsaw Friends of the Library book sale. Their little storage/sales room is overflowing. The hardbound books were fifty cents each. The one about Shackleton crossing Antarctica I bought for my husband though I will probably read it also.  I had read Hickam's October Sky and hope The Coalwood Way is interesting. I have a video of painting in the manner of Dewberry. I cannot get the audio of our video player to work. It may be because we have a sound bar for the TV. Some day when I feel bored and ready for a challenge I will go over the manual and play around with where to plug things in or what to turn on/off. In the meantime, I can use this book instead of the video. The brushes and paint I bought with the how-to video are ancient. This is what would be called aspirational clutter. I am not quite ready to let go of those things. 

I have had a smattering of moss roses this past week; today there are 10 blooms. Yesterday I also staked up the fallen Veronica (Speedwell). They are easy perennials to grow, but they get top-heavy and fall over in the rain and wind. 

A surprise is that one of the Asiatic lilies has two late buds about ready to open. My lilies did not do this in the previous 2 years.

I was also surprised to see two Knockout rose blooms out front. They kind of sneaked up on me; I saw the new growth but wasn't expecting flowers soon.

My neighbor has daisies? blooming next to the spent peonies. I don't know what the bright green stalks are.

It is a little humid today. Low 80's with a breeze. There may be storms around 9 p.m. to midnight. I hope the rain does hold off as I plan to grill brats. We stopped at Sweet Corn Charley's for some sweet corn. Our first batch of corn last week had flavor but also some worms on the ends. 

Summertime and the livin' is easy. No catfish but brats, sweet corn, and potato salad ahead for us.

Summer Time

 After lots of rain which the farmers really needed, it is a little cooler and less humid today. It still feels like summer though. One of the nearby county fairs (Saint Joseph? Elkhart? I just read the headline on my news feed so don't remember exactly) lost power. Kind of hard to run a fair with rides, food booths, etc. without electricity. Fort Wayne also had major power outages. Kosciusko County (my county) fair starts this Sunday the 10th. 

I don't like hot temperatures much, but I do like the melons, berries, and tomatoes that are part of summer. Sunflowers also remind me of summer. I bought 5 stems (flowers) on my online order/pickup at Kroger today.

I had planned to do laundry yesterday (Wednesday), but I saw the toilet bowel water was discolored Tuesday night and when I brushed my teeth the water tasted like iron. Today (Thursday) the water is OK again. I have ruined linens and clothes in the past as they pick up the rusty color when the water is not the way it should be. The good news is that Grace Village is in the process of changing from well water to the Winona Lake city water system. It is rather complicated, but they think we will be on city water by the end of August.

Speaking of clothes, I did order a NYDJ blouse online from Nordstrom Rack. What a fiasco. The blouse that arrived was black background with abstract blue flowers. The blouse I ordered had a navy background with pinkish and red flowers. The label and barcode on the blouse I received matched what my order said. Apparently the information on Nordstrom Rack web site was incorrect. I didn't even open the blouse bag since I didn't like it and it wasn't what I ordered.

 Using the chat feature I was emailed a shipping label for free return. The customer service lady encouraged me to reorder. I told her I was leery because I might end up with the wrong blouse again. She said she would make sure what came from the warehouse was right. But then she saw I had used Paypal on my order and said she would need a credit card number because she could not use Paypal. I told her to forget a reorder. The way she phrased things in her chats I think she was outside the US somewhere. I hadn't set up an account with Nordstrom Rack but checked out as a guest. I think the fewer people/companies that have my credit card information, the better.

 I am still waiting for my refund; they refunded the shipping charge to my Paypal account, but the purchase price has to wait until the merchandise is received. I mailed it July 1st. According to the tracker it was picked up by a returns agent July 2nd, but nothing shows except in transit to Nordstrom.

I bought book 1 of Cindy Woodsmall's The Amish of Summer Grove series at a library sale. When I checked Hoopla, I only saw audio versions. When I finished Ties That Bind, I downloaded book 2 (Fraying at the Edge). It wasn't unpleasant to listen to the book using my headphones, but slow. I knew I could read the book in half the time. I got the printed version of book 3, Gathering the Threads from the public library and finished it in a little over one day. I like Woodsmall's Amish fiction; she is a little different than the stereotypical Amish genre author though. The Warsaw Public Library has quite a lot of Christian fiction books.