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.