Onions

And bearded irises.   Well, alliums - in the same family. Enjoying the blooming pattern.  Dwarf Iris and Crocus first.  Tulips next. Alliums followed closely by bearded iris. Poppies waiting in the wings in their hairy buds. Giant Desert candle sometime after that. Roses likely within the week, pink first then the golden I think. I did not set out to have a flower garden, but such seems to be the result.  As long as my tiny meadow is happy, so am I. 

Protecting myself from the sun. Taking this all very seriously, following directions from the experts. I brought cookies to the dermatology folks at the VA, who went above and beyond to get me to the right person. 

The worst part of this was the effect on my mental health. I had two days when I went into the darkest of places, and could not get out. Kept thinking about The Singing Detective, and how a skin disease effects mood. I felt awful, ugly, a disgust that was oozing from every cell. The flowers that bloom in the spring were just weeds for a few days there. 

I was holding it together at work, but as soon as I was home, I wanted nothing to do with the world.  A few hours after starting the meds, the fog lifted.  It really doesn't take much to alter our sense of reality. Which is why I don't think there is such a thing as an afterlife or even reincarnation. If my whole sense of myself as a person can be destroyed by an episode of inflammation, death and expulsion from a body, would leave it broken down for elements. Composted back into the great universal consciousness maybe - but not as a discrete soul and mind.