Nature Woman

This is what I saw as I looked out my bathroom window a few minutes ago:

Here’s a closer photo of the one on the left:

Here’s a closer photo of the one on the right:

The one on the right got up to munch on some foliage:

They better not be hanging out to raid my garden after dark.  I’m watching guys.  You better behave your little selves!

More on Poison Ivy (Toxicodendron radicans or Rhus toxicodendron). I was under the mistaken impression that Poison Ivy leaves are shiny, which is why when I saw the leaves of three I wasn’t really concerned. Okay, here’s the deal, when Poison Ivy is young, it has shiny leaves. When it grows up, the leaves are no longer shiny. So “Leaves of three, let it be” is now my motto forever.

This photo is “borrowed” from poison-ivy.org, and it is the summer version of poison ivy. This is what I saw, except for the shiny ones. I wasn’t going to go near the area to take any of my own photos!

I don’t feel so dumb anymore though, because my field botany professor told me that one of the other professors didn’t know about the leaves not being shiny bit, and got it all over his, uh-hum, well, he went to the bathroom, and oops, there it was going to be, because he had touched the poison ivy with his hands before he went. I think I’m in agony, I can’t imagine *that*.

Last night the blisters started getting bigger and the infected areas were very painful, and I got scared. So I got my Dr. Schulze’s American Botanical Pharmacy catalog out and his recommendation for poison ivy is to take his Echinacea Plus internally and to use his external forumlas Deep Tissue ointment and Anti-I on the infected areas. Fortunately I had all of this on hand (I love herbs and herbal formulae) and the Deep Tissue ointment took the pain away right away! Today I’m dealing with weeping blisters, so I’m pretty much keeping my legs horizontal, which is a hard thing to do this time of year! I’m also fresh juicing and putting Dr. Schulze’s Superfood Plus into my juice. I can’t wait to get over this mess!