In The Fields

Look at this lovely little yellow flowery thing I spotted in a field this week!

A field that is HUGE.

 Near to where I live we have 7 or 8 big fields of this, and I mean big fields. It covers a good number of acres.

It's incredibly close to my house too.

I pretty much live where the white house is in the mid section of the buildings on the left so you could say I live within a couple of hundred meters of this.

In the next few weeks it will grow into a field like this (car not included):

Ah, the beautiful British countryside hey??

NO!!!! NOT AT ALL!!!!

This is an evil field and will put a dampener on the summer months. Especially around harvest.

This is rapeseed. Rapeseed is a MAJOR allergen and this will cause me a really bad case of hay fever this year. Rapeseed allergy is even noted in England as being more than just hay fever and has it's own classification of allergies and that it is classified as a "polluter" to the British public. Some even call it Rapeseed Syndrome. Though many people will be unaffected by the little yellow flowers that give off a slight scent and fumes, those of us who do get the side effects will experience the following:

Flu like Symptoms
Asthma like Symptoms
Sore itchy eyes
Headaches
Conjunctivitis
Sinus infections
Skin Disorders
Puffy sore eyes
Wheezing

And that's just a few of the possible 32 side effects.

A couple of weeks back, I actually pulled a root out of the ground to try and guess what the green field was and to whether there was anything growing underground. No signs at all as to what it was. Within a few minutes, the top of my hand, where it had brushed a leaf of the bush had me with a load of little blister like bumps so I won't be touching it again ever.

Though I haven't experienced this yet this year, when we moved here 2 years ago I had the worst case of "hay fever" I had in my life. Blaming the surrounding area for it's increase in pollen, I put up with it as much as I could before buying something in a chemist. The harvest was almost unbearable.

It was a rapeseed year. That's why it was worse than ever before. This year I will be visiting my GP to get some proper relief.

The farmers work on a 2 year rotation.

The field nearer my house is just like grass at the moment and last year it was wheat or corn (the grain, not sweetcorn)  I believe. That didn't cause any trouble whatsoever so I am interested to see what the green grass like thing turns out to be this year.

So whilst I am looking forward to summer, I am also looking ahead to a possible summer on prescription.