Poison Ivy!

Some time ago, I wrote a blog entry and included photos of my roses. They’re well past peak performance these days. After spring blooms, the Texas sun comes out and blisters pretty much everything-- Except weeds. And poison ivy. To properly care for the roses, last weekend my husband and I dutifully got out the weed killer. I’m very susceptible to the ivy, so covered up with long sleeves, jeans, gloves, and even a hat. In other words, I was careful, as we sprayed every inch of non-rose vegetation paying particular attention to the poison ivy. That’s a trick because the weed killer will also kill roses. And the weeds (including the ivy) seems to find the perfect growing ground under, around, and up through the roses themselves. So--after spraying, shedding garments, and scrubbing them and myself, I congratulated myself on dealing with the nasty mess. Then 12 hours later, the rashes appeared. On my arms. On one leg. Against my neck, and up across one cheek. It’s reeeeeeel attractive! (not!) The thing is, a couple of spots of ivy rash appeared a full day BEFORE we got out to spray. So I suspect my darling d*ggy Magic rambled through the roses-and-ivy, and ended up bringing in the stuff on his fur. The Poison Ivy Dog Seren wouldn’t think of doing that. The only one in the house she thinks should get special scritches is herownself.