Tagged “hay fever”

After the pond, the next priority was having somewhere to sit. That would allow us to start sitting outside, share meals, and all that sort of thing. I knew where it was going to live, and I knew after de-turfing the area by the pond that a border spade was not really the most suitable tool for de-turfing, and there was no way in hell that I was going to do do that much de-turfing. Instead, I went with the laziest and simplest way to get rid of the grass.

I smothered it.

I've never liked being out in the garden that I can recall. Maybe when I was very young and we had a dog to play with and swings and slides, or booting a football against a wall or something. But, in general, playing outside meant that hay fever kicked my ass on a regular basis. If you've never had the joy of that, let me tell you that it's no fun at all.

At the basic level, it's mild headaches, runny noses, and sneezing. If it gets worse, then it'll hit your eyes - itchy, streaming eyes at first but then they go all puffy and sore and red and you can't see any more. Yeah, they gave me a bunch of drugs to manage them (beconase inhalers, triludan - stuff that was later deemed unsafe for use in children just to add a little extra to things) but there's only so much they can do before they basically give up. The eye drops were the thing I remember detesting the most - stinging little dollops of pain, but at least it meant I could see again for a while.