Hoping

The poison ivy is growing--BOLDLY. No more tender, hesitant shoots peeking between blades of grass--the kind that a firm footstep can pin to the ground. It's tall enough now to reach above socks or smack your face extending from the branch of a tree. Which makes getting out in it a bit more of a production! Long pants, long sleeves... whack, whack, whack it back--but at least you can see its threat.
If there was only a way to see chiggers.
"Probably no creature on earth can cause as much torment for its size than the tiny chigger." Every year I live dangerously--holding off on dousing myself with deet for as long as possible. And every year I wake up after a wonderful day in the yard, to find they're here! Actually, they're there, and there, and there...in all the most unscratchable places.
I hope that day is not tomorrow.