So, since my visit to the pulmonologist, I've been doing a prescription nasal spray twice daily and a real adventure: a nasal wash. AKA, a netti pot, or in my case, a netti bottle.

It sure is a strange sensation to squirt 8 oz. of saline water up your nostril and have it come out the other nostril! Hope that's not "too much information," but I had never heard of such a thing.

The doc suspects I have post nasal drip (even though I feel nothing), and this is one way of seeing if he's right. If, in less than 3 weeks, the combo spray and wash lessens my cough, then I can feel free to cancel the spirometry test. (I think that's what it is.)

If it's not "silent" post nasal drip, he said, it could be a mild form of asthma.

This could be one of those cases where the treatment is worse than the symptom. Just for the heck of it, I've been keeping a "cough diary" to record how frequently I actually cough, and to see if it lessens over time. I do seem to cough more in the a.m. than p.m., which again would indicate post nasal drip since i guess all that stuff collects overnight.

Despite the wierdness of it all, I prefer the nasal wash becus it's relatively benign, vs the nasal spray which comes with a long laundry list of warnings/possible side effects. However, it's a nuisance to prepare becus you're supposed to use distilled water or absent that, boil water and then let it cool.

I've been watching the hummingbird feeder but still no sign of the hummingbirds' return. The same ones return to the same summer spot year after year, and their absence makes me wonder if they died. Hummers live for a few years in the wild.

I also put out my copper bird bath but I believe the solar pump is kaput. It was always rather fussy and easily clogged. It is lovely when it runs, though. I may get a new one if I can remember/figure out where I got it from.

I planted some more basil today, and the lettuce and peas are coming up, but very tiny. Our frost-free date is not for another 1.5 weeks, but I've check the weather report and there's no sign of nighttime frosts so I think we're home free. Tomorrow I'm going to plant my beans, squash, zucchini, cukes, etc. I may also go to Agway for tomato seedlings.

I made a double batch of berry bread today using frozen organic berries I get from BJs. I saw English sparrows nest-building in my 2nd bluebird box so I chased them away and took down the nest. It needed a good washing anyway. I hope that by keeping it down for up to a week, the sparrows will move on and then I'll try re-erecting the box in a more open area of my front yard. I just don't have that much room, but I think it was too close to a brushy area before, so it always attracted wrens.

I did a bit more mulching today using free mulch I got at the landfill. The yard looks great, but it's very early in the season. I need to get more mulch at one time or make more trips to the landfill, but they're not open again til Tuesday now. Once a week is not cutting it; I'll be mulching til Labor Day at that rate! I can bring home about one wheelbarrow full in my car at one time.

My daffodils are already spent, and the tulips and hyacinths are not far behind. The dogwood (I'm down to 6 now, all white, sadly) and lavender ground phlox are in bloom and the azalea and crab-apple look about to burst open.