Doug vs. the interweb

April 18th, 2010 11:21 PM

There are many dangers

I bought a new net. It was awesome! Sturdy, long handle, rigid hoop, super-fine mesh. Took it down to the stream, and about five minutes in, the handle broke in half. So, a shorter net! And after all the various adventures, I noticed that the mesh was fraying all around the hoop. So, a terrible net. I'm out $13 or so, which could be worse, but: I have two nets that I have had since I was a kid, and they still work just fine. I had to sew up a hole or two, but they're still kickin', still sturdy, still holding all my fish and salamanders and frogs. And I go to the store and buy a net, and before the day sets, it's broken in half and on the verge of losing its mesh entirely. Things just don't seem to be made to last lately!

But on to the dangers. I decided to follow the stream some more and see how it connected up to other places, and was tromping about through the grass. The grass gave way to a patch of some other kind of plant; it was the same height as the grass, fairly innocuous, and not resembling anything I could consciously recall as being a problem. In fact, it looked like a larger version of mint, sort of like this. Regardless, I stopped at the edge of it, as something in my head was telling me to be a little more careful. I ran a finger over the leaf of one of the plants, and it felt fuzzy and fine. I couldn't come up with a good reason to avoid them though, so I continued on through. I stopped at the water's edge, and I felt a pain in my foot, like something had gotten caught in my sandal. I made sure nothing was there, but as soon as I would take another step, it would pain again. Then, more spots on my feet and even legs started to do that, ranging from just a tingle, to a feeling like having tiny splinters. Well certainly, it was time to investigate further! I stopped, and roughly grasped one of the plant's leaves between my fingers and squeezed; oh indeed there it was, the feeling of tiny needles, fiberglass, splinters, pins..

I felt a bit silly not knowing what this plant was that vexed me so. Luckily, I am much taller than it is, and each plant is its own discrete stem, rather than tangled vines, so it was easy to just angle my steps to minimize contact. I have since looked it up, and the best guess is that it's a stinging nettle. This is what the dang thing looks like close up. So, it turns out I was right on two counts; it certainly does look a lot like mint, and the spikes are basically little glass splinters. Plus, it actually does have a venom of sorts that goes with it. Yeah, sharp glass fragments just are not enough for this overachiever. At least it's not the stinging tree, which can kill people and horses. Australia, you find so many ways to kill!

Of course, the dangers were not over. I approached a bend in the stream to try my hand with the net when a loud hissing began on the far bank. Since I had my head down to try to sweep the net, it did take a noticeable time for my to bring my eyes up to see just what in the heck was up. Was it a terrifying snake? Some kind of awful beast?

Nope, a goose. But dang, an angry goose, as it seemed to have its nest right there, and so was standing up high and making hell of ruckus. Could've popped your head up any time before I was two feet away, to give an earlier warning? Nope, you had to wait until the last second and then get all dramatic. I must confess, I did feel a flush of fear; they are mighty large birds indeed, and I was all alone. My feeble, broken net would probably serve little defense (though it would be hilarious to catch a goose in it and see how it would flip out).

Bonus link: Sado-Botany.