NETTLED!

Last Saturday I went on a hike to Stewart Falls with family. It was a gorgeous hike, and despite all the other people on the trail, I really enjoyed myself. While we were enjoying ourselves at the river, I very clumsily tripped on some roots and took a dive, left side first, into a lovely patch of stinging nettle. I didn't even realize it at first, and my nephew, who I shall call Intrepid Explorer, or IE, gave me a hand up. (It was good that he is big enough to do this, or he would have ended up "nettled" as well!) I was brushing off the dirt and I felt a stinging sensation on my left knee. I thought that I must have scratched it, but when I checked it out, there was nothing there. SE was giving me grief about my gracefulness when the stinging sensation intensified like nothing I have ever felt before. (Did I mention this was my first time being attacked by stinging nettle?) I ran down to the river and started splashing cold water on my leg, and then my arm started burning, too. I furiously started splashing river water on it, too. In the meantime, SE was helpfully taking pictures of the welts and offering to pee on them. Since the river water was marvelously cold and gave me some relief, I did not feel the need to take him up on his offer. He said he thought he had something that would help in his pack (he is the Survival Expert, after all), but the best he could come up with was a benedryl or a bandaid. I gratefully took the benedryl, but secretly was plotting to stop at the first pharmacy or grocery store I could find on the way back so I could get some real relief, which may or may not have included chocolate.

For those of you who are worried about me still being in the throes of elephantitus, the welts stopped hurting shortly after I returned home and most of the swelling had gone. Then began the itching phase. In all seriousness, I'd rather deal with pain than itchiness, but since I don't get to choose...

Anyway, the itchiness is pretty much gone this morning. FINALLY! Surprisingly, my favorite cure was not the topical benedryl, but the Bactine, because it had lidocaine and numbed whatever that dumb nettle was trying to throw at me.

For those of you who might be worried, the camera is just fine, since my skin took the brunt of the fall.

As a parting shot, here is SE checking out the offending vegetation. I didn't think of this then, but now I'm wishing that maybe I might have kind of sort of just a little bit given him a push...

What?!?

I had to work last night until 9:30, which is absurd given my line of work. That happens to my bosses, but never to me. It really sucked, and I missed seeing SE entirely yesterday, which was weird given that we were both in town. I noticed, however, that when I tried to have a sense of humor, that it went much better than when I was having a major pity party. I think there's a life lesson in there somewhere...if only I could figure out what it is.

Dear Garden,

I missed you last night. Are you doing okay? SE said that he gave you some loving care and attention, but I wished I had been there to tuck you in and say good night. Will you be okay until I can come again?

Love,

Optimist

Flooding

I just want to give a shout out to my dear friends along Little Cottonwood Creek in Murray. We used to own a condo that bordered the creek, and we still have dear friends that live along there. Our thoughts and prayers are with you at this stressful time. I'm also willing to send SE over to sandbag. In fact, he was doing that for a while last night at the elementary school.

This blog is supposed to be about me being positive despite life's adversities, but I honestly can't think of anything positive to say about this. Let me work on this for a second...


Okay--here's something I could say--SE needed the exercise, and he's always up that time of night anyway.

I hear the creek has crested, but I've also heard there's a chance that it will rise again today, due to hot temperatures. UGH!

Go BIG or go home!

Our family participates in a community garden of sorts--the community being my brother's in-laws, who have graciously invited us to participate even though we are not "blue bloods." (I think it's because they get more help with the weeding.) You can read about my brother's experiences here. We get together every Monday night during the gardening season and work a patch of ground that I understand is about 1/3 of an acre, more or less. Of course, when I'm weeding, it feels like it is definitely more than an acre, but I'll save my gripes about weeding for a later post. My crew and I are responsible for 6 rows that contain asparagus, peppers, beans, cabbage, broccoli and corn. I let SIT1 and SIT2 help plant the beans, and they loved every minute of it. However, they got a little crazy with the seed planting machine and I'm not exactly sure where those bean plants might be popping up.

Back on the home front, I've planted chives, basil and parsley, and I'm getting ready to plant another couple tomato plants and a few more herbs. I think I will buy a couple of packages of geraniums just to add color, and then my flower beds should be full to overflowing. My house is currently for sale, so there is a chance that I won't get to harvest any of the goods I'm working so hard to grow, but we haven't had ANY interest for almost four weeks, so I'm not too worried about it. I always have the community garden, which almost always produces more than we all can use.

I love having the opportunity to garden, both at home at with my brother's inlaws. There's something about being one with the dirt and being able to make something grow!