Daily Photo

Seeing as Tabs was a stray when we met, I don’t know his exact birth date (a vet pegged his age then at about one year), so I decided a long time ago that we should totally share birthdays! My baby-cat turns 8 (!) on June 9 this year, and we’re both going to co-celebrate.

I know, total crazy cat lady move, but whatevs.

After my swatch visit to Sephora today I walked into the Petco next door to look for a present.

As Tabs is a mature adult kitty now, I might have to get him some of this CatSure, which is a liquid nutritional supplement kind of like Ensure, but for adult and senior cats.

Awww! 🙂

Or what about this roll-on catnip?

Did you know this was actually a thing?? Roll-on catnip?

Who knew?

If I can’t decide, I could always get him grooming products but, you know, since he’s always so naturally fabulous, he might just pooh-pooh the idea.

So, awkward question for you… Have you ever thrown your pet a birthday party? Inquiring (and slightly embarrassed) minds want to know. 🙂

On the bottom floor of the Seed Bank in Petaluma, that huge, awesome gardening store I talked about last weekend, is a humid, brightly lighted room filled with these things called air plants, also known as epiphytes.

I could’ve spent at least an hour in there, during which time I probably would have gotten a tan from the bright overhead lights!

There were so many cool air plants in there I’d never even seen before. Most of the ones at the Seed Bank obtain moisture from the air or from dampness on the surface of their host plants, or wherever they’ve attached themselves.

Do you have any air plants? I don’t, but I’m thinking that’s probably going to change soon because I can’t stop thinking about them, LOL!

I think I’d like to get one for my office.

El Hub and I ventured north again today, this time up to Petaluma, which is the town right next door, only about 10 miles away.

But we’d never been there before! What’s up with that? It was time to rectify that situation.

It’s a beautiful area, very rural, with lots of farms and rolling hills and breathtaking views. Antique stores are everywhere! And they have a lovely downtown waterfront with lots of little shops and places to eat.

A great place to walk around (or bring a bike) if you ever make it out to this area. It’s in Sonoma County, which is part of the whole Wine Country area, so you could do a little wine tasting in nearby Napa, or at one of the many wineries in Sonoma itself, and then stop in Petaluma for lunch.

The coolest seed store I’ve ever seen! Literally thousands of things I’d never even heard of before.

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Have you ever heard of honey to treat bad allergies? Like seasonal sniffles, sneezes and itchy eyes? I had an interesting conversation with Chelsea, a longtime MBB reader, crazy cat lady/bunny lady and all-around cool gal (hey, Chels!), in the comments the other day about eating local honey to help with allergies.

Mine have been pretty bad this year, but I’m always trying to avoid taking too many real-deal allergy meds because, you know, I just don’t want to take them too often, and the ones that work for me also make me sleepy, so, I’m open to other alternatives…

With the honey, as I understand it, the idea is that when you eat local honey — that is, honey from bees that live in your area — it exposes you to some of your local allergens and can help immunize you against big-time allergic reactions.

I like the sound of that. 🙂 So I went to a farmers’ market on my lunch break today.

Got some white peaches (with the leaves still on) and a small jar of locally sourced honey.

The guy running the stand even said that about a third of all of his customers are people looking for help with their allergies.

He had a whole bunch of different honey brews and flavors. The one I got, and the one he recommended, is called Honey So Fresh, which is local honey harvested very recently, because he said that the most important thing is that the bees were exposed to the same allergens that are bothering you right now.

He suggested not adding it to anything hot, either, so no coffee or tea, and said that the amount you have doesn’t matter as much as how fresh it is. Maybe a teaspoon twice a day. Of course it doesn’t hurt that I absolutely love honey.

So that’s what I’m going to do for the next couple weeks, and I’ll report back to let you know if it helped. Hopefully my allergies chill the eff out, man!

Have you ever tried local honey to treat your allergies? Do you think it helped?