Poison Ivy Saga & Painting Practice With Black India Ink

     Those of you that followed my poison ivy "drama" last year,  well you won't believe it but I have a really bad case of it again-can not believe this has happened again-triple ugh  😟

    We had perfect weather here on Monday, so I grabbed my small shovel (I like this shovel so I can sit down to work and protects my back and knees)  and wanted to dig out these horrible little bushes that are facing our property line along one side of the little garden shed. Last year I cleared out this area of weeds, trimmed back these strange to me plants that had very thick stems and whispy branches full of fuzzy sticker type things all over it.  It never looked pretty, have no idea what they are so decided they must go. They are close to that mound of vinca I had shared on Tuesday.

   So I cleared an area next to the property line and those bushes of grass and planted three clumps of ground cover phlox that will bloom a pretty pink. I had picked up a large tub of it at the Amish greenhouse.  I decided to dig up those ugly bushes next-what a job-very thick roots that spread out in all directions, and then after I got into digging discovered this very thick landscape fabric to prevent weeds-which did Not do that.  So long story I got it all out bagged the roots and took to the fire pit to burn off with the leaves. Late evening I had one large red spot, and both arms and hands looked burned. Yikes can't be poison ivy or oak cause I didn't see any at all where I was working.

   The next day it started spreading with dark red blotches, not the typical looking poison ivy. I still had that pink stuff so spread that over everything. Sleepless night do to the burning. That evening still spreading. Poison ivy on me does not usually even show up on me for a couple days.  This morning I decided to drive to the doctors office first thing before they opened to see if I could get a cortizone shot.  That worked out well didn't have to wait long at all and saw the nurse practitioner. I asked her to read my chart from last year. She only gave the steroid shot no predisone pills but to call if I think I need them in a few days.  It is about a 30 minute drive to the doctors, by the time I got home it had spread to my face and legs-sigh 

   So I am talking with Larry this morning, that I didn't see the poison ivy so I don't get that--well most things are not leafed out yet here but still.  Then I described this horrible ground cover-and he says ahh nope that does Not sound like ground cover it is either  asbestos paper or fiberglass paper used in car hoods. What??

    The previous owner to this lake house was a mechanic and reused allot of materials here at the house, and did not know how do things the correct way at all. Larry has been in construction off and on since his teens.  So no wonder I am thinking that I have more red blotches than the typical pus filled rash.  Well late today I do have areas that do look like poison ivy and I am thinking also from that horrible paper I pulled up. Lesson learned-I need to wear long garden gloves-end of story-something I do not like wearing are gloves.

   Well I just had to get this saga written down and move on. Hoping tomorrow the shot will start working.  Lesson learned for anyone gardening with the threat of poison plants nearby.  What really gets me is that we lived like pioneers for almost 20 years at the woods house with poison ivy every where, never once got it as I could identify it there, here at the lake house I can't see it. , 

  Thanks for sticking with me til the end.

This is the book I picked up last year to help teach myself watercolor painting. Kate on T had shared it. Since we have lived rural for many years, libraries are not nearby or convenient so I buy used copies online instead I enjoy the hunt online for a good price and free shipping  This is a spiral book which I love for a learning book

  This is the book that I used to learn painting watercolor flowers, and used India ink-waterproof needed I learned- I just never thought of inks being used in paintings like watercolors. I like that.

  For this week's practice I spotted a sheep-I love sheep-which used only India ink and diluting it more and more you can get the color down to a very light grey. I thought that was awesome to learn about. So I found the perfect tool to use in my stash to try this out. Learned one needs much less ink to start with to make the colors. From the photo one can not really see the difference til it goes on the paper. I am working in a mixed media paper notebook.

I liked the idea of this exercise using only the ink and circles-thinking I can do this-ahh maybe haha

I love the way the sheep looks like he is sitting down-I didn't achieve that though

   Realized I  made the sheep body too long so he looks odd but I do like him in a whimsical way-and I am working on learning what I didn't do right and improve upon that, instead of being so hard on myself. I really want to get better with watercolors and now inks too-I want to be able to paint one of our sunrises-that is my goal in the end.

   Late yesterday I was tired, burning from this rash but since I still had lots of ink left wanted to try again-that second sheep was way off and I didn't like the way he turned out at all, as he was not sitting down either.  I want to try one more time tomorrow or the next day and then move on.

   We have another big storm moving in tonight with up to 40 mile an hour winds-not too happy about that at all. I do not like wind, it makes me nervous, not sure why, but I just don't like it.

   Those of you not familiar, I have started a link up all about Food-Food Wednesdays. You are most welcome to join in, and/or visit all the link ups-some really good food posts are being shared.

Happy Wednesday evening everyone-and stay clear of poison ivy and oak  😏

The Poison Ivy Saga Continues

   Good morning-(early for me at 2:20 am) 

  Just thought I would pop in really quick I am into the second week now of the poison ivy "saga"  It's probably been around 20 years since I got myself running into this. I should know better, since I am very allergic to it, and should have been wearing long sleeves and garden gloves-but now living on the lake and not in the woods-just never thought to run into it. Wrong haha and I should have remembered as the first spring we were here I spotted some in the iris beds.

   Usually I head right to the doctors office to get a steroid shot-but the rash popped up-about 4 days after-and we were scheduled for the first covid shot-we chose pfizer shot and one is suppose to wait at least a week after that to get a steroid shot. It also popped in on my arms around 4th of July weekend.

  This is one of the worse cases I can remember getting, rash-huge blisters-burning and instead of itching more like little pins jabbing my skin.  So they got me in late yesterday-yep a very bad case-gave me a really strong steroid shot that after about an hour made me nauseated. He also gave me a week of steroid pills-high dose to low-and said important to continue with the Benadryl every 6 hours which he said was important to do.  I said oh bummer I don't feel like a long drive to wal mart-he says no need right next door to the clinic is a pharmacy-oh Wow. That saved me soooo much time. The pharmacist was explaining on how to take the pills and she said you are the forth poison ivy case today. There must be allot of it around with all the rain we have had.

  I am glad now that I didn't sign up for Fiber U which is this coming weekend, as I think I would still be uncomfortable and it's a longer drive now. Also I was really bummed that my favorite natural dye instructor was only teaching a beginning class this year and most of the spinning classes were more advanced. I love spinning but I just don't think I will be super good at it. This year they also had many knitting and crochet classes beginning to advanced. I should probably take a beginner crochet class as many handwoven garment finish the necklines and sleeves with crochet or knitting.  However, I did discover from their Facebook page that there are weavers and spinners in the town next to us-as one person was looking for a ride so that is good to know.

  I am still waiting for the natural white 8/2 cotton that I ran out of for my warp. I check them everyday. This cotton is made in Brazil and was do in end of June-hoping soon.

  So if you are working outdoors in your garden beds-be aware of the poison ivy and poison oak that could be lurking to "attack" there is also a poison sumac too-which I haven't seen here in Missouri.

 and the poison sumac which is different from the "good" sumac

Below is the edible sumac (the leaves eco print well and these berries make a delicious tea the Native Americans early settlers would use it)

   Happy mid week