IF THAT DOESN'T WORK, TRY SOME CALAMINE LOTION

PATIENT BUDDY BEING PESTERED BY COOPER, THE PUPPY

JEWELWEED, AKA TOUCH-ME-NOT, PLANT GROWING AMONG NETTLES...

...UNIQUE JEWELWEED FLOWER...

STINGING NETTLE

Monday, 8:45 AM.  68 degrees F at the ferry dock, 65 on the back porch.  Wind S, light with slightly stronger gusts.  The sky is clear with some haze, the humidity 86%.  The barometer is falling some, now at 30.04", predicting thunderstorms tomorrow, but clearing for the balance of the week.  It is a nice summer morning.
   Daughter Greta arrived yesterday from Ohio with two of her three dogs; one a four month old Black Lab puppy, cute as a button and full of the dickens.  Poor, patient Buddy is getting pulled and pummeled constantly, but he puts up with it like a martyr.  I'm getting plenty of exercise.
   Two plants caught my attention this morning,  one an annual called "touch-me-not," or jewelweed, Impatiens biflora, in the Balsam Family (Balsaminaceae); the other,  a perennial, named stinging nettle, Urtica dioica, in the Nettle Family (Urticaceae).
   Ripe jewelweed seeds are subtended by a spring mechanism, and are shot from the seed pod like little cannon balls when touched, providing endless entertainment for little boys and their fathers and grandfathers.  Touch-me-not is a nativevv annual growing in ditches and wet places, and is very turgid with a mucilaginous sap, which is said to be an antidote for poison ivy and other irritants, including stinging nettles, which tend to grow in the same habitat.
   The needle-like hairs of stinging nettles are extremely irritating when touched, but the nettle plant has a lot of beneficial characteristics.  It is a very nourishing early spring herb, before the stinging hairs develop fully, and if soaked in water can be made into a cooked dish or soup, even added to bread and beer (better get the recipes before trying) and there are a lot of traditional medicinal uses for the herb, including as a diuretic.
   Anyway, if you get "nettled," look for the "touch me not" plant that may be nearby, and hopefully get some relief.
   If that doesn't work try some Calamine lotion.