Late August Garden Photos
Hay Fever, Harvest, and Links to Like
Æstival Catarrh, aka Hay Fever
The paper version of The Old Farmer’s Almanac for 2023 has a quirky little article on the history of hay fever. So, for any fellow allergy sufferers who are trying to soak up August’s sunny days whilst trying not to dig out their eyes from pollen irritation, here are some fun facts that I have gleaned & summed up:
Catarrh is build-up of mucus, particularly in the nose/throat/sinuses. We don’t use the term much in the U.S., preferring descriptors like snot, phlegm, and loogies.
Blame ragweed, not goldenrod (nor foul vapours, as originally believed…though this summer’s swirls of wildfire smoke drifting over the continent may indeed be blameworthy).
Æstival (now aestival or estival) refers to summertime. You can of course have allergies in other seasons, too. I recently read a patient’s clinical report from their eye doctor, which included a diagnosis of vernal conjunctivitis. If you know any Latin words, you are well on your way to impressing people when thus describing someone’s springtime eye irritation.
Though noted around the agricultural harvest season, hay fever was a fashionable medical condition to have in the 1800’s, if you were wealthy enough to get thee to an equally fashionable seaside resort for symptom relief. Which presumably meant they could do without you in the field for the actual harvest work.
The 1st case report on hay fever was published in 1819 by a British physician, John Bostock, whose case subject (n of 1) was himself. I think this makes his work the first known public account of “man cold.”
Latest Garden Photos:
Links to Like
Some posts I’ve enjoyed reading lately, from other writers on Substack, spanning the informational to lovely seasonal reflections to ye olde humour:
It’s not Fall yet, but the schedule thinks it is.
Our family’s summer schedule began June 3 and ended yesterday, when our 2 youngest started back to school. Next week, Phillip and son will be back full time at our local university. Our summer was busy but varied, and peppered with some days where nothing was planned. I work the same schedule year-round, but the extended daylight of summer makes me feel like I’m working less. Hours of evening sunlight for being in the garden, after being stuck inside a clinic all day, is maybe the best thing about summertime. Now most waking hours of our weeks are claimed by school & extra-curriculars. This is also the first time in 7 years that no one will be homeschooling.
So… if not on to a different season yet, on to a different, more regimented schedule. We’ve had some very cool nights, though, which foretell the coming seasonal change.
What about you, reader-friends? Are you back on a Fall schedule? How’s your harvest? What flowers are blooming where you live? Do you wish, like me, that summer would last longer?
May your harvest be plentiful & your hay fever be mild!
—Erin, in Michigan
Beautiful photos! I have always been one that has longed for fall. However, for the first time this year I’m wishing that the long days of summer would stretch on for just a bit longer.
😁 I do my best in the summer because I feel guilty when my plants wither in the heat.