Spring is in the Air

I know it is technically still Winter. But a couple of lovely sunny days and the hints of blossoms on the trees gives hope of the approaching Spring. I am not fooled, I know we are still in for some hard cold days when the doona beckons or will not release us from its tangled hold, but today is sunny and I choose to be an optimist.

Apart from the sunny days, thoughts of blossoms and optimism, other things also turn my thoughts.

Apparently most people with Autism will have allergies of one form or another, and this is one of the times I tend to follow the norm. (Yay for being on the curve)

I love my garden, and growing plants and seeing the changes of the season in my microcosm. (You will have to take my word for this, my current garden is still very much under planning and construction and paused until other garden destroying projects have taken place). But planning a garden is much more than picking pretty plants when you have allergies.

There a plants aplenty. Beautiful things that will survive and thrive in the places I want them to be. But choosing a plant is so much more than going to the nursery and picking something pretty. Will it grow where I want it? Will it grow too well where I want it? What affect will it have on the surrounding area, roots, shade, branches, spikes, fruit, and so many more things.

It is the things that aren’t on the label that I need to know. Will it make me sneeze, give me headaches, cause my skin to itch or blister. Google doesn’t always help as some of my reactions are obscure. Ivy gives me blisters (or blister like sores) and that took a while to figure out when you have a garden with miscellaneous patches of the plant. Tomato plants make me itch (but I am willing to risk and wash myself as quickly as possible for the home grown fruit). Daffodils give me a hard deep headache. (I volunteer with the Cancer Council and it takes diplomacy to tell them you can’t participate in one of their major fundraising days because you are allergic to it)

It has taken me all my life to accumulate my knowledge of what plants I can tolerate. (Moving interstate to different climates four times in my life hasn’t helped). The plants that are on my hit list are quickly removed from any garden, this can take a year or more as some plants only annoy me in certain seasons. So, now I have my relative blank canvas, a couple more projects and I can find the plants that like me the whole year round and start creating my oasis. Just hoping that any hit list plants my neighbours have can be avoided at any crucial time.

But why, apart from the sunny days, are my thoughts on Spring?

I can decimate my garden. Go napalm on the plants that don’t like me. I can clean my house with neutral substances, I can avoid areas where I know there will be plants that give me adverse reactions. But I don’t have that control with the world of people.

I choose jobs in industries that do not favour the NT female. I avoid the sales reps with a fear of BO. I don’t go to the fancy functions where the well dressed and made-over congregate.

But today, with the border closures and restriction on travel, my husband had to sign some legal documents for his mother’s estate. Because my husband could not cross a border to meet with the probate lawyer, the probate lawyer came to our house to sign the documents.

So, here I sit, with a dull head and wanting to cry, on this beautiful but chilly day, with all the doors and windows of my house open, hoping that the the perfume dissipates so that I can sleep tonight.