Windemere

        This weekend I have discovered that I have not only english ivy but several other varieties of ivy around the house. I wish that I could tell you that I found out about the various varieties of ivy through photos and research and things like that but my research and discovery was of a much more 'hands-on" variety.

        On Friday I did a bunch of pruning of the bushes and shrubs along one side of the property. Unbeknownst to me I apparently have both English ivy, pyracantha bushes, privet hedge, and poison ivy all mixed together along the fence where I was working. You know how I know there was poison ivy there. No it wasn't because i recognized the three shiny leaves. It wasn't that I noticed the hairy tendrils on the vine. Nope it was when I woke up this morning with my right eye severely itchy and swollen.

        Poison ivy has never been my friend. Getting it pretty much anywhere on your body sucks. But getting it in your eye is terrible. Of course it isn't limited to just my eye. It is all over my left arm, in-between my fingers on both hands, along the side of my jaw and neck, and of course on my legs. But I think the eye is probably the worst. There aren't a whole lot of topical itch creams that work so well around the eye. And you just can't scratch to relieve anything. And the stupid blinking means it is constantly stretching and moving around. Plus the fact that my eyelid is all swelled up makes life grand.

        Now that the house has resorted to chemical warfare I feel that it is only fair for me to escalate things from my side to assure a balance of power. Two can play this game. Rotterdam convention or not, I'm sure that a little 2,4-D and maybe a splash of 2,4,5-T will have ivy of all varieties singing a different tune around here.

        A typical summer thunderstorm blew through this evening as the sun was setting. The cool breeze and lightning show were a welcome change to the still muggy heat of the day.

        Not only did I get a great shot of the lightning, but the best part is that nothing blew down on the house and the basement is still dry.

       Since I have been a bit stalled in making home improvements because of a fairly hectic work schedule I thought I'd at least take a few minutes to freshen up the blog a bit. My goal in starting the blog was to come up with the most simple and low maintenance way possible for me to share all the stories of my home experience. To that end I have done pretty much nothing to customize the blog in any way. What you saw was what came out of the box from wordpress. So let me know if you like the new look or not and if the spirit motivates me (and I finally stop working long enough to have the time) there may be some more changes to come.