Pregnant Lady Walking

I went for another walk yesterday. It was hard to force myself to get out there, but at least I was rewarded with a few floral favorites, like buttercups, violets, and wild geranium. The wild strawberry flowers were already gone. I wanted to poke around in the plants to see how the berries were coming along, but I didn’t dare. They were surrounded by poison ivy. Berries are yummy, but not worth the itchy rash, or the wrath of my Faithful Reader.

Faithful Reader goes on the path for poison ivy. The WARpath, that is. He really hates that plant. If I were to bring home any of the oil, whether as a rash on my skin or a residue on my clothes, he’d probably divorce me.

For myself, I don’t worry about poison ivy much. I’m not the only one. I chitchatted with a dog walker for a while yesterday. She kept walking along the very edge of the path, rubbing right up against the poison ivy leaves, so I warned her to be careful. She claimed to be one of the lucky 1/50 people who has no allergy to it. I hope she’s right, because from what I’ve heard, everyone’s allergic but some people need to be exposed multiple times before their skin reacts.

Though I don’t worry much about getting poison ivy rash, Faithful Reader’s obsession has caused me to be overly aware of the plant. Sometimes all I see as I walk are those shiny leaves, whereas once upon a time I hardly noticed them. It also keeps me from setting foot off the path, so I don’t get to explore as much as I’d like.

I suppose sticking to the path right now is all for the best. Pregnant women who are nearing their due dates shouldn’t be roaming too far afield. I often wonder, though, as I pass by other walkers,  if they think that I shouldn’t be out there at all. What am I supposed to do, sit around like a blob? It’s good to be outside and enjoying normal activities. I always bring my cell phone and the path never strays far from civilization. Just don’t tell my mother-in-law that I’ve been walking by myself. She doesn’t even seem to think I should drive a car by myself right now!