Tuesday, April 21, 2009

It's pollen-ing outside

My part of Oregon has been getting an incredible dose of spring sunshine for the last few days:

This delightful occurrence has made things grow like crazy in my garden....
The daffodils are so bright I have to squint to look at them:

The vinca, though small, makes me smile:

The strawberries are thinking about giving me some fruit:

I'm not sure what these are, but aren't they pretty?:

Even the old, unused goat run is blooming this year:

I wonder if goats like to eat these:

Everywhere I look, my garden is suddenly alive and anxious to be seen:

The garlic is thriving:

A small bed of beets and lettuce (protected from hungry deer currently inside a small dog fence until I can get my regular garden fence up) is well established:

The peas are poking up:

Carrots are finally sprouting (I can see them, can you?):

The radishes have been going nuts and had to be thinned:

But with all this incredible sun, these big guys have been acting up:

Do you see that odd haze in the air...a lack of clarity in the photo?:

I've seen trees drop pollen before but *never* like this. Walking outside, even though it is brilliant sunshine, it appears to be sprinkling. Which it is...though not with rain.

For people with allergies (me, my son, my husband and, well, pretty much everyone I know), this has been almost like a horror movie. Here's my car:

Seeing these small particles everywhere, floating down on my head and landing on all the surfaces around me, I suddenly realized I was breathing all this into my lungs. I practically talked myself into a massive allergy attack right there on the spot. But I tried to remain calm and, instead, appreciate the nature event unfolding before me.

I've never seen an accumulation of pollen like this before. It's almost like sand in its consistency:

With the slight wind, it has now blown onto all our window screens:

The pollen is so fine, it has filtered its way into our cars and the house, finely coating all surfaces with a yellow, powdery dust. A powdery dust that is perfect for writing messages in:

Can you believe I'm looking forward to our next rain?

p.s.
I got yet another tiny egg . For anyone wondering, this one, too, weighs a mere .4 oz.:

27 comments:

  1. Yikes! Looks like Mt. Pollen erupted. What a good excuse to procrastinate doing those outdoor chores, though.

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  2. Whoa - that's some crazy pollen. I've never seen anything like that. I hope you're not too congested.

    Those little yellow flowers aren't ladyslippers are they?

    And, Danni, you need a goat. :)

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  3. That tiny egg looks like a robin egg I found on my sidewalk this morning. My nose and I understand raining pollen too. We are on our second allergy induced sinus infection of the season. Good times!

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  4. Your garden is looking beautiful!I'm so sorry your allergies are going haywire.
    .4oz! How can my little egg compete with that? Have you figured out which hen is laying those?

    my word verification is braponi, now that would be something to see.

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  5. Holy Cow! The pollen is horrible! I've never seen pollen cover like that.

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  6. We are having pollen just like that here too. Luckily, or maybe unluckily, we also had a massive front come through and dump 2.5 inches of rain in under an hour with high winds. All the pollen washed away in bright green rivers down the gutters and the wind took the little pollen thingies and threw them all over the place. Whew...maybe I can breath again!

    Those tiny eggs are coming from the same hen? Something wrong with her?

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  7. I'm having to clean the water trough everyday because of all the pollen in it! I think if I've ever gotten small eggs, I didn't see them. They tend to vary where they lay so I'm sure I've missed some eggs.

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  8. Wow, I'm amazed at how quickly your garden is growing so soon after all the snow & cold temperature. Isn't spring grand?

    I'm also amazed at the amount of pollen there is. I've never seen an accumulation on a car like that before.

    Love the little egg though.

    P.S. Re: the rain comment....be careful what you wish for...I'm just sayin'...

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  9. Wow that's a lot of pollen!!

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  10. Oh my gosh, your pollen makes my eyes itch and my nose twitch . . . and I don't even have allergies! I'm so sorry—maybe you should wear a mask when you walk out to enjoy your lovely blooming gardens. Really, I mean REALLY! We get a lot of pollen from our oak trees here in our mountain town in central California, but nothing like what you're experiencing.

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  11. wow, that is amazing dose of pollen. how long it will take to get it out of the house.

    what a cut egg

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  12. We've had a lot of pollen here too. Had to rinse my car window off with a bucket of water yesterday just so I could see out to drive. The pollen is late around here this year. We had a much longer and later Spring than normal and now are having a hot and humid spell. I am not ready for it to be hot yet! My pollen allergies have been active for the past 3 weeks too. It can really get you down and make everything seem so "fuzzy". I'm allergic to just about everything that grows wild here. Mostly weeds. Lots of weeds.

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  13. YEP! The pollen is pretty bad here too. We've had some nice rain these last few days tho and that helps wash it away. My allergies are pretty bad too....

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  14. How are you liking all this pollen pushing wind?!
    Love the dog crate idea.

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  15. Hi 7MSN - With the fair (non-rainy/cold) weather, there was much to be done over the last few days, so it wasn't until yesterday that I finally wimped out and hid behind the closed doors. Of course, it also wasn't until yesterday that the wind really started to pick up and make things even worse. Accumulated pollen + wind = burning, itching eyes and a whiny me. :-)

    Hi Sarah - no kidding, right? Fortunately, I've got my prescription Allegra, which seems to do right by me (at least right now) - it wasn't until yesterday with the wind that it finally hit my eyes and caused temporary blindness from the burning pain. lol

    Regarding the ladyslippers - this is probably what you told me last year, too, when I posted a picture and said I had no idea what these are, right? :-) I can't find that post. heh.

    Hi Carolyn - Ooooooh....sinus infections - yuck. Hope those will be a thing of the past for you soon. Aren't tiny eggs just the sweetest? Except, you look at the size of my (incredibly healthy) hens and it's hard to imagine why oh why one of them is laying such a small sized egg! :-)

    Hey Sugar baby - Thanks for the compliment on my garden...I love spring. Just by saying this, though, I've probably cursed myself to an end-of-April snowstorm, just watch. Regarding my smaller than yours egg (snort), I have NO idea which hen is laying them. I wonder if she's trying to tell me something. Braponi - HA!

    Hi seasonseatingfarm - Nice to see you again :-) :-) - The funny thing about this pollen "storm" is that nobody in the "city", about 25 min from here, knows what I'm talking about. Of course, at my local gas station, it's the talk of the town.

    Hiya ChristyACB - Unbelievable, right? Wow, now when I say I "can't wait" for our next rain, I certainly don't mean to imply I'm wishing for 2.5 inches in less than an hour!! Let me be perfectly clear on that. lol
    I don't THINK anything is wrong with any of my hens - everybody appears healthy and normal. I'm seeing a number of other bloggers posting about teeny eggs, too, so maybe it's a "coming out of winter" thing? No idea...

    Hey Christy - gosh, as if you weren't cleaning up after and caring for a million things already, now you've got massive amounts of pollen to contend with, too! Fortunately, I believe this should be a short-lived state (keeping my fingers crossed...).

    Hi Carolynn! Yes, I used to think summer was my favorite season, but now I'm pretty firm that spring is...everything is so fresh and green and there is just so much potential and opportunity... You all had a pretty nice weekend, too, right? We've got a yuck patch of rainy/not-so-warm weather about to hit us, so I've been careful only to put my cooler-weather veggie crops out. The bulbs and flowers seem to be able to take care of themselves, though.

    Hi Eve - You'll have to give me a pollen count in your new state of Alabama!

    Hey CaliforniaGrammy - No kidding! I see a small dust devil on our deck right now, swirling the pollen into a funnel-shaped cloud ....blech. I need more than a mask, I'm thinkin'. I need a protective body suit! :-)

    Hi Homemoma - Thanks for your comment!! I have no idea how long it will take to get out of the house, but the thought of cleaning every surface and nook and cranny makes me more than a little grouchy! All I know is that I'm not touching a thing until it stops falling from the tress and the wind dies down. A nice cleansing rain would help nicely right now, too! :-)

    Hiya Farmer Jen! You've got humidity, huh? It wasn't so bad here. But, then, it didn't go above 83 degrees. I love the heat, so I just want to be clear that this isn't what I'm fussing about! lol
    I'm specifically allergic to trees and grasses. So late summer is another rough time for me, when all the grasses start to bloom.

    Hi Mare...who would think I'd ever be anxious for a bit of washing-away rain?!

    Hey Angie!! Unbelievable, this wind now, right? It has blown the plastic roof panels off my chicken run twice today alone. And the lovely swirls of pollen clouds are making me cringe. I opened up the back door a few minutes ago and saw that there's about 1/8" of pollen lining the door sill and leaning up against the door! If you want to "talk pollen", though, be sure to stop in at our local Shell station. One worker there yesterday told me it was "dripping" off his house. Yuck...wet and sticky pollen??? The horror! :-)

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  16. Wow, and I thought the pollen was bad here!

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  17. Wow, and I thought the pollen was bad here. But the little seedlings look great!

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  18. That's intense! It's not near as bad down here in TN. Well, not yet anyway! Keep the tissues closeby!

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  19. I think you should vacuum that pollen up and send it to Warren for his bees. I am sure they would appreciate it.

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  20. I need a mask just to look at those pollen pictures. Amazing.

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  21. That egg is amazing! Barely an egg at all. Still thinking aliens might be involved. :)

    Your yellow flowers are Yellow Columbine.

    Great pictures. I'm so glad it's finally springtime for you. Pollen is sucky. We actually got a bit of a break this year--don't know why. Usually everything around here turns an eery shade of yellow-green. I think when it was just about to dump on us, we got a big rain that washed it all out of the trees.

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  22. Ugh. Pollen. Note to self: Refill allergy meds. When I was younger and lived in GA this would happen to us. I was always miserable. And like you, I seem to get hit with allergies pretty badly at the end of the summer as well.

    I LOVE the beet bed. Its very sweet and just the right size.

    Those itty bitty carrots look very similar to my itty bitty carrots.

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  23. what a great garden and the pollen has been crazy here as well, beginning to lessen a bit now

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  24. Holy crap!

    You need bees! They would have a field day!

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  25. Your planting season is WAY ahead of our in Maine. Garden Envy :(
    Wow, that is a lot of pollen!

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