Flower dreams
Posted: March 15, 2013 Filed under: 365 Life in the Bogs Challenge, Adventures in art, Adventures in Life, Air, beginnings, Daily Walk, Digital Art, Earth, Fire, Flashbacks, hiking, home, nature, Photography, Quotes, Spirit, Spring, Walking, weather, winter | Tags: Dream, flowers, Hiking, Longwood Gardens, MaidinSun Photography, Marsha Norman, Milne, nature, Outdoors, Pennsylvania, Photography, Pooh, quotes, spring, sunset, trees, weather, winter 29 CommentsIn my dreams, I never have an age.
~ Madeleine L’Engle
Last night (well, really it was early this morning) I had a dream that was filled with flowers. Someone was teaching me to identify wildflowers by their leaves, their blossoms, and their stems. Wouldn’t it be nice to learn through dreaming and wake up with a head full of knowledge you didn’t have when you went to sleep?
In my dream the world was filled with flowers. The fields were covered with them. Trees were blossoming. Pathways were lined with colorful flowers.
Dreams are illustrations… from the book your soul is writing about you.
~ Marsha Norman
It was the height of spring in my dream, when the world is bursting with a riot of colors. Everything was bathed in a warm and soft light.
I suspect the dream was a result of helping M sort through photos last night. We found a box of prints that hadn’t been put into photo albums. The images are from our year in Sabbaticalville (West Chester, Pennsylvania). We visited Longwood Gardens frequently so I tend to think of that year as the year of the flowers.
Who knew that insanity came in hot flashes?
~ Deborah Cooke, Kiss of Fate
I read somewhere that hot flashes are the main cause of sleep disruption in women over the age of fifty. I didn’t need to read it to know it to be true. I’ve been having hot flashes for a while, but they suddenly got much worse. They are driving me nearly insane, especially at night. I don’t sleep much. It is not until around four o’clock in the morning that they cease and desist, and I am finally able to fall into a lovely, deep, filled-with-dreams, sleep.
The night is the hardest time to be alive and 4am knows all my secrets.
~ Poppy Z. Brite
I keep wondering if maybe I should flip my sleep schedule on its head. Go to bed at 4am and wake up in time for the hot flashes to begin in the afternoon. I tried the night shift once, long ago, when I worked for a company that prints checks. I didn’t do well. But I didn’t have hot flashes keeping me awake, either.
But Pooh couldn’t sleep. The more he tried to sleep the more he couldn’t. He tried counting Sheep, which is sometimes a good way of getting to sleep, and, as that was no good, he tried counting Heffalumps. And that was worse. Because every Heffalump that he counted was making straight for a pot of Pooh’s honey, and eating it all. For some minutes he lay there miserably, but when the five hundred and eighty-seventh Heffalump was licking its jaws, and saying to itself, ‘Very good honey this, I don’t know when I’ve tasted better,’ Pooh could bear it no longer.
~ A. A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh
I reckon that’s it from this land of sleeplessness. Perhaps I’ll try Pooh’s method tonight and count Heffalumps. I would gladly allow them to eat all the honey in the house in exchange for some sleep.
Thank you for stopping by. Have a delightful day, evening, night… wherever and whenever you are on the spectrum of time. And have a great weekend!
What a combination your night included…. those wonderful dreams filled with flowers…after the frustration of hours of hot flashes… thank goodness for the dreams!
The dreams were truly a blessing, Kathy (PP). 🙂
Gorgeous flower pics. It seems I’ve always been a night person, even as a kid. I do go to bed at about 4 am – some days am able to sleep til noon; some days have to get up and then take a nap in late afternoon/early evening to make up for it. I can go 48 hours with no sleep and still be okay, so I stopped worrying about it. On those sleepless nights, I do my best to enjoy the solitude and the quietness.
That’s one of the things I actually like about sleepless nights, Deborah. The solitude and the peacefulness. 🙂
hot flashes, sleepless nights, flowers to fill your dreams and a post to fill our day with beauty. Does that somehow balance out? I’m sure you won’t think so at 2 a.m. if you’re still awake. Sending some fairy sleep dust your way.
Thank you, Joss. I think that fairy sleep dust did the trick for a night or two. 🙂
Oh good!
I really enjoyed this post filled with such bright, vibrant flowers. Sorry you aren;t sleeping, but if you have to wait until 4 am for dream time, glad you were at least dreaming flowers!
Thank you, Bo. 🙂
I’ve never been there. I get excited about the thought, but then, because I can’t really afford to travel, I can really get my expectations too high or not real. How large are the gardens? Is it just like a public park to walk thru at will? Is there a specific direction to follow sort of like a tour so one can see it all? I should probably google that but a real answer from a real person that went often puts things in real time. Oh, do you have to pay admission, parking etc.?
Lots of questions, Elisa. 🙂 Longwood Gardens are beautiful, but you do have to pay admission. I think parking is free (or was the last time I visited). It’s a HUGE place where you can walk where you will, as you will. I found it was best to go on a weekday if you can. Tuesdays, in particular, seem to be a slow day (meaning there aren’t great crowds of people around). You could probably see it all in one day. I’m so glad to have lived near there for a while so I could visit often and explore during the different seasons. If you’re nearby, it’s well worth it to buy a membership.
Oh my! Thank you for the wonderful reminder that spring will eventually be here! I’m so very tired of white and gray and brown – it was great to see pink and purple and blue! Sounds like a perfect dream too.
You’re welcome, Karma. 🙂 I needed some color, too. I’m glad the dream goaded me to look back at some old flower pics.
I used to always wish I could have some kind of learning take place while I was sleeping. Wouldn’t it be lovely to wake up so incredibly more knowledgeable than when you went to sleep? Love these dream images and that quote from Winnie the Pooh. 🙂
I think I would probably learn better that way, Cathy. 🙂
It would be wonderful if we could learn from our dreams. Mine (at least the ones I remember) usually don’t make much sense. There are herbal remedies on the market for hot flashes – have you tried any of them?
Mine don’t usually make much sense, either, Jo Ann. Someday I might have to post about the giant slugs that took over the city of Columbia, South Carolina. Now that was a really weird dream. lol! I generally avoid the herbal remedies because most involve estrogen and I need to keep my estrogen levels low.
My personal congratulations on these incredible photos Robin. Wow each and every one of them took my breath away. (((Sigh)))… I can’t chose a favorite though the rose is perfect, as are the two photos with the purple carpet.
And I love the quotes. I just read the Winnie the Pooh one aloud to Mr F.
Yes I’d also love to learn names of flowers while I slept.
re the dreadful night sweats = Sorry. Been there done that. Acupuncture helped me. A bit. The good news is you’ll eventually grow out of it just like teenage pimples and painful periods…
Thank you so much, Rosie. Winnie the Pooh is always best read aloud, I think. 🙂 So glad to hear I’ll grow out of the hot flashes and night sweats. It’s a bit like adolescence in reverse. Hormonal, but not for reproductive reasons.
beautiful pictures!!!
as for the hot flashes, have you tried some herbs?
Thank you, Ellen. 🙂 No herbs so far since most of the recommended herbs raise estrogen levels (which I need to keep low).
yoga breathing can help?
It does help a bit, Ellen. Thank you. 🙂
Get Mac root and take 1500mg per day. It has worked WONDERS for me. It helps our body produce balanced hormones…from all the endocrine system. As long as I take it everyday, I only have minor sweats one to two days before my cycle. Otherwise, I do not even know it is time for it until it happens…it has helped that much with the emotions and tensions that come with this menopause time of life. Keep up the good work and write down any info from your dreams….we CAN learn “new” info while sleeping. And we can retain it when we wake, but you have to write them down as soon as you wake up. Love your posts!
Thank you, Amber! I’ll check it out. I do keep a dream journal, although sometimes I wake up so confused and confuzzled that even that doesn’t make sense. lol!
I used to read my exam resivion onto a tape and play it back as I went to sleep. I’m not sure if I ever learned anything while I was asleep, but at least my mum was happy I was revising. 🙂
As for the hot flushes (power surges) try drinking a small portion of soya milk each day, it’s supposed to mimic the eastrogen and help to balance the hormones.
Good luck. 🙂
Probably the reading helped it sink in, Sallyann. 🙂 As for soy, I have to avoid it although I do sometimes indulge in fermented soy products (tofu, miso, tempeh).
Hi there Robin!
Wonderful photos here. Can you tell me the name of the pink flowers labeled, ‘Blossoms on High Street in West Chester, Pennsylvania’ above?
Thanks.
Rexie
Thank you, Rexie. 🙂 I’m afraid I don’t know what kind of tree that is. Perhaps a cherry of some kind, but I’m really not sure. Sorry I couldn’t be more help.