Mutifaceted post

So many things going on and it is my day off!
So we will do each item as if it were a single entry

Disaster!

In the kitchen, sadly!
I was making my version of potato leek soup.
Everything was looking good.
All the ingredients except sour cream and salt were added.
I start to add a bit of sea salt....
and the top comes off pouring the entire contents of the container into what was, wonderful soup.
The bad thing about sea salt is that it does not dissolve immediately, so each attempt at correction only released more salt into the soup.
What a waste.
No more leeks in the house so I will need to wait till another day.



Fall cometh, slowly...

This is one of my favorite Autumn trees. Its common name is Autumn Scarlet and I have been taking pictures daily as it slowly changes. It is a tree that does not grow much over 30 feet and takes a long time to get there. It has very small, pale yellow flowers in the spring and turns brilliant red before losing its leaves in the fall. It has not yet turn...
This is a few of the pictures:


Other trees have been much quicker.



Okay, we have had winter, lets go back to Spring!

The weather has been wet, cold and windy, reminding very much of winter in Houston.
It has lasted about what I would experience there, so it is time to end the Winter season and have Spring!
Right?
No, you say?
We haven't had Christmas yet?
And Thanksgiving?
Not even Halloween?????
Oh, I think I am going to be depressed!

It must have been the strawberries...

For years I have been a sufferer of various allergies, dust, mold, pollen, certain grasses.
Most of those were found when i was a child and they gave me shots to minimize them.
In a different part of the country now, the seasonal allergies have given me a fit, but are fairly well controlled using Allegra!
When i first moved up here, i worked as an analytical chemist in a plastics coating company and they sold their goods to various produce companies including Hersey's chocolate. One day Hersey's wanted us to analyze a taste problem they thought was happening and sent us a 25 pound block of chocolate. We only needed a few micrograms to do the test.
After concluding there was no problem with the chocolate, the rest was left for us to eat and I did enjoy it!
The problem was, after that when i would eat chocolate, i would break out, rapidly.
My first food allergy.
I also loved strawberries and was involved in a food co-op with the community i was part of for the poorer neighborhood that we were living in. Several of us would go down at 3:30 in the morning to New York and purchase food from the distribution markets down there and it would be in bulk and in season we picked up strawberries. And i would sample them and sample them and did i say sample them?
Well it was not long before i would start to choke up on the strawberries and could not eat them anymore. There would also be a strange physiological reaction, I would become despondent, close to depressed for a significant time after. Now, i was not always the cheeriest person, so there was not a lot of difference, but enough for those closest to me to notice. I stopped eating strawberries.
There are other things i need to stay away from in large quantities, eggplant is one. They call them night shades, but not all.
I can eat tomatoes and HOT peppers with no problems, but must limit mild peppers.
After the tumor was removed, there were changes, I no longer break out eating chocolate, but i am cautious not to over do it. Eggplant still causes problems and strawberries seemed not to cause too much of an issue, until last night.
We went to IHOP for dessert and i had a strawberry crepe and soon after that became uncontrollably depressed for about 30 minutes. It left rapidly, but I will be leaving strawberries alone for a while. No long lasting effects, but like i said, strawberries are back on the take in moderation list.
The worst thing was during this time period, I spoke with my mother, who is not the easiest person to talk to as she does exude that it is some how my fault that i am not seeing correctly and that the reason that i do not drive down is because i do not want ot see her. This was not a good conversation, but it will be better another time.