Getting small- in fine nettles

We had dirt hauled on to the property once and now we have nettles forever.
It has been raining this year a little more that usual, and all of these beautiful green seedlings started sprouting all over the yard.

There are a few pieces  of grass, very few but mostly this is...

Nettles!!!
Oh No! even these tiny little beauties will sting if you walk bare foot on them. They are so beautiful though.

Like this cushion-y layer of soft plants that you could lie in and soak up the sun.

I waited for them to get larger because we have another volunteer plant that grows here that doesn't sting. I thought they might be nettles, but I wanted to wait to be sure.

Yep, there are the infamous hairs of pain.

Nettle is the common name for between 30-45 species of flowering plants of the genus Urtica in the family Urticaceae, with a cosmopolitan though mainly temperate distribution.
Thank you Wiki!

Closer...

Be careful now, this stuff bites.

The Latin name Urtica means "burning" and "uro" means " I burn".  The sting of nettles contains the chemicals Histamine, which irritates the skin, Acetylcholine that causes a burning sensation and Serotonin, which causes the other two chemicals to react. This is the main side effect from using nettles. The leaf of the Dock Rumex is traditionally used to reduce the pain of the nettle sting and are normally found growing in the vicinity of nettles.

There is lots of Folklore about nettles. In Norse mythology Thor the god of thunder is often represented by nettles and burning them on the fire will protect you from his lightening during thunderstorms. Also in Norse mythology Loki, the trickster god, spun fishing nets out of nettles. Actually a very good string can be made out of nettles and nettle string had many uses in the ancient world.                                                        From the School of Natural Health Sciences  Check this web page out...very interesting.

Nettles contain vitamin A, vitamin B1 (thiamine), B2 (riboflavin), B3 (niacin), B5 (panothenic acid), vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin K, vitamin E. chlorophyll, potassium, calcium, mangaan, acetycholine, serotonine, sulphur, iron, selenium, magnesium, chromium and zinc.

Culinary uses: Care has to be taken in collecting nettles to avoid it's irritating sting and the wearing of stout gloves is highly recommended. However, the leaves are high in nutrients and also very tasty, making it worth the trouble, whilst cooking them destroys the stinging effect and makes them perfectly safe to eat.
From Vortex Health where they sell nettles in capsules. Seems like the best idea to me!

Photo credit here goes to Wikimedia commons and the ever wonderful
Jerome
Prohaska

OH, oh, oh, now I know why those things hurt so bad.

"out of this nettle, danger, we grasp this flower, safety." -Shakespeare


You can also read another getting small post here.

Leaving for the PCCMMRetreat

Monday at 4:00am PDT the alarm went off. This is the point where I say "if I didn't pack it, it is not coming with me". I sleep like I am on the edge all night, making lists and popping awake with bring such and such in my head. I forget it all by the time the alarm goes off, it is just a form of self inflicted torture that I have done to myself for years. Besides every time I have forgotten something, some kind soul lends it to me.

I felt pretty organized, but it always happens no matter how organized I am.

Howard makes coffee for me while I shower, nice.

Howard drives me to the airport with little to no traffic, nice.

I get my bags checked and one is 48.5 pounds the other 40, I must have forgotten something right?
Southwest doesn't charge for 2 checked bags, YAY!

I go through security, they check my jewelry case (wire and clay) not the best combo for getting through there unchecked. I have a courteous human being that is friendly and doesn't throw my stuff all over the place, nice.

I walk up stairs to my gate. I am early, nice.

I go to the bathroom and...

I find a "getting small" right before my eyes.

It is a new to me installation of art in the San Diego airport Terminal 1, nice.

From far away as I approach it looks like a long photo and then...

Wow, it is tiles.

1/4" tiles.

With glazed tiles laid in to form the image. This is the baby's face.

This work of art is at least 15 feet long.

This is the baby's left eye. Wow, it is a beautiful piece of art.

And this one is right as you walk in to the women's restroom.

Already this is an amazing trip!

Getting small

This is walking to the stand of flowers.

I like to get small and with a camera that is very easy to do.
I love to focus on the small aspects of life, the textures, and the subtle colors.
I love to use the pictures as components of my digital collages.
I was driving down the road the other day and there is a place where the volunteer honeysuckle is prolific and it is like walking or driving into a perfume shop. It is probably 30 feet long and 10 feet high.

The window was down and I got a whiff.

There is a smudge on my lens, I love this picture.

I have lived here for years and no one planted these, but my grandmother had some on the side of her house ages ago.

Smudge still there.

We get tons of things that grow from seed, from birds that sit on the wires and defecate. LOL!!!From piles of dung grow beautiful things.
I went back to the same spot with my camera and started taking photos of the area.
Smell-o-vision would be wonderful now.
But if you have ever been in a place where there is a ton of this flower it will bring back the fondness and the feel.
In smaller amounts of these flowers, I don't remember the fragrance being this strong.

I figured it out, I can see clearly now the smudge is gone!!!

This is a very close to the road. Eucalyptus seeds.

This is a flower (weed) in the hump in the middle of the road. It is about a 1/4" in diameter.