That link is an eye opener. I think there is tons of poison parsnip around. I haven't had a problem with it and I know I've picked it unless it was a similar looking plant. At age 60 I finally got my first reaction to poison ivy but just a little spot on my foot since I've been wearing flip flops in the garden and there's some poison ivy near the compost bin. My poison ivy blisters were large, almost like small welts. We're using a brush killer that we also use on Japanese knotweed/bamboo. Funny, I have sensitive skin, can't use anything with lanolin but haven't had much problem with plants. I got in stinging nettle once but you feel that as soon as you touch it.

I had a German shepherd/boxer mix dog as a kid. She could and did eat anything. My first from-scratch cake was a devils food with a thick, rich chocolate frosting. We put it on the coffee table with plates etc., as we'd invited friends to come for cake and coffee. I was so proud of that cake. It never occurred to us that LuLu would bother it, she was very good about not taking food etc unless we gave it to her. I walked out into the living room just in time to see her oh-so-casually saunter by the coffee table...and nibble off the cake with the side of her mouth as she passed. She must have been making passes for a while, because she'd managed to eat about 1/4 of the cake. She used to pick all the low hanging pears from our tree, she'd circle the tree staring up until she found the ripest one before jumping up to grab it. She ate a lot of pears, they never seemed to bother her. The only thing she ever ate that I recall making her sick was the time she got into the coffee can full of bacon fat we kept under the stove. It was a 10 pound can, and it was getting pretty full, I noticed as I was draining that morning's pan. When I came home from school, there were these odd little pools of some light brownish-grey stuff everywhere and the house reeked of bacon. LuLu was nowhere to be found (she often hid when she knew she'd done something wrong). In the kitchen, the cabinet under the stove was open, and the coffee can only had a few inches of fat left in it. LuLu was eventually found, huddling in the corner of the yard looking pretty miserable...still retching once in a while. To the day she died, some 15 years later, she wouldn't touch a piece of bacon. If you offered her one, she'd back away from you, whites of her eyes showing!

Finally finally finally have time to really read. December was crazy-a needlepoint gift that I almost finished...for DD and her DH to celebrate their cross-country tandem bicycle honeymoon. Several writing deadlines and the holiday frolics. Plus work. It all eats into reading time. There should be a law or something. Anyway-my current upstairs book is The Poisoned Chocolates Case courtesy of wigardener-really enjoying it. Downstairs is The Fleet Street Murders mentioned above. On the TBR pile-my very own copy of Wolf Hall and library copies of What Remains of Heaven, The Brutal Telling and My Antonia for bookclub. Riches and Bliss.

Glyphosate is glyphosate and triclopyr is triclopyr. You can't just substitute some other chemical compound and call it an "equivalent".......pesticide labeling laws prohibit that. The active ingredients MUST be identified correctly!! My interpretation of the "equivalency" statement is that these ingredients are expressed as a weight in addition to a percentage. The only thing new about this product is the addition of the triclopyr, which has always had the reputation of being more effective on brushy or woody weeds (like PI) than just plain glyphosate. This is no more dangerous or safer than just plain RoundUp. Which, despite all the press to the contrary, is pretty darn safe for homeowner use when following label directions. The suspected association of glyphosate to a specific type of cancer - non-Hodgkins lymphoma - has been known almost since the product was introduced to the market back in the late 70's. The recent CA lawsuit involved a groundskeeper that used the product on a daily basis....and often not with the best judgement and PPE. All the more recent lawsuits are just tort lawyers jumping on the litigation bandwagon, hoping to make millions in fees.