Thursday, July 4, 2024
Dear Diary,
I woke up at 1:30 AM and used the bathroom. I fell asleep again at around 2 AM. I woke up again at 6:30 AM. I got up and let out the chickens, ducks and geese. I put freshwater in their pools and freshened up the goats water. Then I watered the outside plants and filled up Angels swimming pool. I went in the house and greeted Christopher. I made my tea and went back out to the banana hut to write my blog. Angel was just waking up and making her bed. I told her good morning and she went in the house to eat breakfast. I sat in the banana hut and wrote my blog. When I finish posting it, I went outside and hung out with the animals. I took a video and posted it on YouTube. Here it is: https://youtu.be/1KHQY09qP_8?si=w3TQwRprJSEBmnDJ
I fed the ducks, geese and chickens. Then I fed the dogs, cats and goats. I really enjoy feeding the animals, maybe it’s because they get so excited about it. I went in the house and made a cantaloupes smoothie. Christopher, Angel and I got ready to go to the Milano, Tx. Fourth of July parade.
Milano is only 5 miles away and when we arrived in town, I stopped at the Dollar General to get some wet wipes. I saw that they had plastic kid pools in front. I had been looking for those so that ducks and geese could have more pools around the yard. I bought a couple of them and some wet wipes, and we drove to watch the parade. I parked along the route, and then we walked up the road to check out some booths that were set up. When we were walking back, a friend of mine and her three kids were driving by. They stopped and asked if they could join us to watch the parade. I said, of course. I was very happy that Angel would have kids to hang out with. She had been lamenting all morning about missing Finn. I usually get him once a week but last week he was sick and I didn’t hear back when I asked about what they were doing for the Fourth of July this week.
While we were waiting for the parade to start, I saw some plants across the road with beautiful flowers that I wanted to take pictures of. I walked over there and saw a Bull Nettle plant with a beautiful white flower on it. I knew Bull Nettle flowers were edible, but I had never tried one before. I picked it and ate it. I had heard that the flowers were sweet, but this flower was not sweet. It was very bitter. My intuition was telling me that something wasn’t right about that flower, but I ignored it and chewed it up and swallowed it.
The Milano parade was a lot of fun. Milano is a very small town with only 390 people. The parade was very small as well, but much more personal. A lady stopped her horse so the kids could pet it and you were able to talk to people as they went by. The kids had fun chasing the candy that was thrown out and waving at everybody. Next year we might be in the parade. I was thinking it would be fun to bring my side-x-side.
When the parade was over, we said goodbye to our friends and headed home. I started to get a tummyache and was feeling very strange. As soon as we got home, Angel wanted to go to swim tank. I told her we could go, but I wanted to sit for a few minutes and drink my smoothie. I hadn’t eaten yet and I thought that drinking my smoothie might help my stomach. It didn’t really help, but we got our stuff together and walked through the woods to swim tank. I thought it would be fun to walk the long way around and go on some trails we hadn’t been on for quite a while.
The walk through, the woods was lovely. Some of the trails were almost completely blocked with fallen trees, but we climbed our way through. We walked across a big bridge that we hadn’t been to for a really long time. A lot of the trails were overgrown and I kept a good eye out for snakes, but we didn’t see any. The dogs had a great time running through the woods and I know that our newest dog Healer had never even been on some of those trails before. I took pictures of plants and flowers to get them identified so I could research them.
It took us about an hour to get to swim tank. We were plenty hot and sweaty by the time we arrived. We got in the water right away. I swam out to the middle and floated on my back. My stomach still hurt and I still didn’t feel quite right. As I floated, relaxing my mind and body, all of a sudden I realized, that the flower I had eaten was not a Bull Nettle flower, it was a Thistle Poppy flower. I remembered mixing up Bull Nettle and Thistle Poppy before when I had identified them. They both are prickly and they both have white flowers. The flowers and the leaves look completely different but for some reason, my mind mixes them up. I had done what I tell other people not to do. I had eaten part of a plant before double checking to make sure it was the correct plant.
I hadn’t researched Thistle Poppy yet. It was on my list. I figured that now would be a good time to look it up since I had eaten one of its flowers. I swam to shore and laid in the hammock while I looked up Thistle Poppy. I quickly found out that all parts of the plant are highly toxic. That would explain my stomach ache 🤣. I was grateful I had only eaten the flower petals and not the center. Being poisoned with Thistle Poppy causes severe edema which can lead to heart failure. I was showing no signs of edema. All I had was a tummyache and a yucky feeling.
Angel had brought her remote control sailboat to the swim tank and wanted me to take a video of her playing with it on the water. I got up and did that. Then she wanted me to control the boat while she chased it. We did that for a while, and then I went and laid back down in the hammock.
Here’s the video: https://youtu.be/u95_aB7Speg?si=GEMy4fc26hMal_5Z
I called Christopher and told him about my eating the wrong plant. I thought it was all quite funny and I laughed and laughed about it. Maybe it was my time to die and maybe it wasn’t but it probably wasn’t since I had eaten such a small amount. After getting off the phone with Christopher I called my son Shawn and wished him a happy Fourth of July. Then I called my friend Tracey and told him about my plant mix up. Angel joined me in the hammock and when I got off the phone, we both laid there dozing and rocking, enjoying the breeze and the sky and the trees and the sounds of the birds singing.
When it was close to dinner time, we walked the short way home. Christopher had dinner almost ready when we arrived. I drink a banana smoothie while Christopher and Angel ate. I got on my phone and ordered some new board games on Amazon. Then I collected eggs and we all gathered in the banana hut for Story Time. I read Julie of the Wolves for an hour. Christopher had fallen asleep while I was reading and I was feeling really tired myself. My stomach still hurt a little and I was still feeling a little off. We hadn’t gotten any fireworks for Angel and instead, we were planning to build a fire and roast mushrooms. I asked Angel if it would be OK if we didn’t have a fire and went to bed early. She asked if she could play on her phone. I said that she could and she was happy with that. Christopher said he was going to bed early too and went into the house. Angel got on the trundle bed with her phone and I fell asleep at 8 PM. At 9:45 PM. I woke up to the sound of fireworks going off. Angel was still on her phone. I told her it was time for bed. I went out and closed up the ducks, chickens and geese. I went back to bed and wrote my blog for a while. I fell asleep again at 11:30 PM.
Thank you for reading my blog and being a part of my life. I appreciate you.
Love, Victoria
P. S. This blog post was inspired by the Holy Spirit.