Poison Ivy wildflower.
Taken with a macro lens.
Leaves of three...leave them be!
And there is the Cinquifoil weed with its pretty yellow flower.
Oh and an unknown flower with spider...
Last but not least, the Beautiful Wild Geranium with rain droplets.
That is it for today.
We have mud mud and sticky mud. Our dry spell has ended and we now have warm temps and high humidity along with a lot of rain.
Last night I built a sidewalk out of scrap plywood so we could enter the house without wading through sticky clay.
Have a wonderful day, our farrier will be coming soon, time to go catch critters!
Some days are absolutely worth getting up for early. I rose at 4am [yeah crazy huh?] ... and got Ariel up at 5am.
We hopped in the Subaru and headed to the ridgetop where I parked on the side of the road.
I wanted to share with her the wonderful pre-dawn hush of the world before the sun awakened the day.
I'd told her that she could come with in her PJ's and we'd enjoy the early calls of the pheasant and robins as light came to the ridge.
I'm pretty sure by the look on her face that this was a very cool experience for her.
Because I didn't want this moment to be forgotten, I set up the camera on a tripod and used the flash and remote to take a 'sunrise' selfie of us.
Surely, this will not be one photo tossed soon.
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We discovered by a small rash, that Dennis had gotten into poison ivy the day before.
We found it rather quickly...or should I say his mom did.
Treated it right away with some hydrocortisone cream and then Jewel Weed soap and a gauze wrap for the night.
Imagine my surprise when the kids pitched in on their own to help do the chores yesterday morning.
I was pleased as punch.
I do think that letting them chose to do it and letting them figure things out on their own was a good thing.
They were very proud of the fact that they did this on their own.
They engaged in pretty tough work and I must say, I was impressed.
I'm thinking that this is what great fun it is to be a grandma. Not only to infants, but to kids and to watch them grow and do good things.
Of course I've been a 'grandma' now for 10 yrs and it has been fun. But never quite have I had a weekend like this.
I'm sure looking forward to a whole week of 'Grandma & Grandpa Camp'.
I'm pretty sure we are going to avoid Poison Ivy and Sunburn!
Well, do our best anyway!
If anyone told you it was not fun growing older and becoming a Grandma, they have NO clue.
On a hot summer day. As pictured, I wear my Vibrams to walk in the creek. I stay nice and cool while the heat and humidity soak up the woods. I've had these 'shoes' now for three years and absolutely love wearing them. That is, in case anyone was interested.
Morris and I came down through the woods and meandered along the creek.
What was our purpose? To check fences of course and then to just wander and look at things.
We found some Self Heal growing in the woods. This is commonly found in the pasture also.
The Elderberry bushes are beginning to blossom:
We found poison ivy [not in my woods or near the creek, but I thought I'd add it here because those who got into it last week did not recognize it and are suffering for it now. It was located behind the mailbox and next to where they did all the work on the phone cable.]
This was hidden in with the native pink rose.
This was near the phone 'box' near the road.
Truly truly, if you live in a wooded area please be aware of these plants!
So Morris and I continued on our merry way through the creek.
He is a pretty smart little dog. When it is hot. He walks right in the creek instead of fighting the tall grass. But when the creek gets too deep, he leaps to the bank and runs through the grass until he can drop back into the cooling waters.
The grass is so tall! He could get lost in it!
But being the 'cool' dog that he is. He picked a shady spot and stood in it to cool off.
And then we found the dreaded Wild Parsnip. The roots are good to eat in the early spring and late fall, this is an invasive weed.
If you break the plant while it is in blossom and get the sap on your exposed skin, and it gets exposed to sunlight, you will get a burn from it.
Not that I am going to test it out any time soon.
As a blossom, it is pretty though.
Last stop before going home was sitting in the creek on a boulder and cooling off a bit before hiking back home.
The gnats finally made it impossible to enjoy it any longer.
We had a wonderful time doing nothing but exploring.
Morris was very happy.
Morris was also very worn out when we did get home.
He napped on the couch the rest of the day.
Whatever you do, enjoy your summer days.
Remember, winter comes too soon!
