My thoughtful son

So my loverly son knows how much I love wildflowers and he picks them for me all the time.

The last week of school he had to walk home from the bus stop, which I normally don't let him do, and every day he brought me a different flower. There was pink clover, daisy, Queen Anne's Lace, Deptford Pinks etc. Basically the normal flowers everyone knows and a very pretty variety. One day he came home with a rather large cluster of white flowers the he said was the biggest Queen Anne's Lace he had seen. I knew it wasn't but I couldn't place what the name was so I decided to put it in water anyway. It stayed on the windowsill only for a short while until the cat decided he wanted to eat it, as he does all my flowers. After he got a small piece and instantly spit it out, I knew the plant had to go.

Last night I found my wildflower guide book and looked up the plant. Turns out, what my thoughtful son was picking for me was Water Hemlock! The book said in bold italic letters that it was a "Highly Poisoness" plant and that it is directly related to the very same Hemlock that Socrates took. OH BOY.....is what I thought though with a few more expletives.

I told Jarred all of this and reminded him not to pick the very pretty flowers unless he knows for sure what it is. I marked the page in my wildflower book with the date and the location we saw the plant like I do with all the new plants we find.

And by the way....the kitty is fine. Obviously the plant tasted bad enough for the cat to spit it out in time. Thank Goodness!!