I can barely spell delphinium







D-e-l-p-h-i-n-i-u-m.

I found a pleasant surprise this weekend -- my delphinium came back from the grave! (I realize that's a pretty common theme with my posts around here.) This had been chewed down by the devil woodchucks, and managed to come back again and actually blossom. I am beyond thrilled. I love the colors in it -- it kind of reminds me of the purple Rose of Sharon that we have. Did you know that delphiniums are also called larkspur? I had heard of larkspur, but didn't realize it was the same flower.  And, according to wikipedia: The name "delphinium" derives from the Latin for "dolphin", referring to the shape of the nectary.  They are also very poisonous to humans. So there. Now you've learned something today. This blog is nothing if not educational.




Delphinium, aka, larkspur.

I loaded these photos onto the blog over the weekend, and thank goodness I did that -- I have not been able to see straight for the past 18 hours. (It's kind of interesting typing this -- if this blog post makes no sense whatsoever, blame the following story.) I managed to pull something in my neck/back of my head yesterday while at the gym, giving me a near-migraine. This happened while I was on the elliptical -- a machine that does not require neck movement whatsoever. It was a searing pain when it happened, and then was just annoying for the rest of the day until the late afternoon. Then it became terrible again. I spent my evening with a hot pad on my neck, and took some Tylenol PM which had the exact opposite effect that I was hoping for -- I might as well have had a large cappuccino before going to bed. Josh came up with the idea that I should put Icy Hot on my neck as well, hoping that would sink in and help the situation.

Little did we remember that a certain little tiger cat LOVES Icy Hot. It is about 1,000 times more exciting to her than catnip. So as I was drifting off to sleep last night -- finally -- I was quickly woken up by what appeared to be a fur stole around my neck, licking the back of my head and purring. Then she started kicking me. Then she ended up on Josh's head, rolling around.  He told her to go to sleep, and she then ended up near my face, with her nose in my ear. I removed the hot pad that I still had around my neck and laid it down at my side to divert her attention. 

She slept with her arm around the hot pad all night, like it was a teddy bear. I told Josh I thought I heard her muttering something about, "My precious..." We left for work with her laying on the bed next to it. She was not giving it up. I'm hoping we don't have to stage an Icy Hot intervention when we get home.