It’s not every day you meet a real life superhero is it?
At least I think that’s what they were, there’s no other conclusion I can come to. Superheroes or aliens or people from another dimension who have developed especially thick and yet amazingly normal looking skin.
I mean, you just don’t expect it do you?
After picking Miss E up from school, we’re down at the local park. Misses E and M have worn themselves to a frazzle on the climbing frame and swings and both have performed various daredevil feats that I am dreading them showing their cousins Miss ME and baby J as it’s likely they will attempt to copy them and be perilously injured in doing so and I will feel that guilt I always feel when my nearly 4 year old niece copies my 7 year old, and my 19 month old niece copies my 3 year old. Sighhh.
Miss M is nursing a bumped knee but is being very brave and we decide it is time to amble down to the pond and commune with the ducks, geese, moor hens and other pondlife.
We approach with caution as we are bread free and the geese on our park sometimes get a bit narky with people who come empty handed..
Miss E sensing imminent danger prepares to give Miss M a shove should the need arise (hopefully towards safety.)
We continue our trek round the pond, stalked at all times by the terrifying harbingers of algae and duck poop infested watery doom. Shiver.
As we finish our sojourn, rain clouds threaten so we hurry back up the hill to the relative safety of our car, and it is then, as I am about to drive off that I see them…
They look quite normal right?
Wait, let me crop it a little closer…
See, they’re not wearing pants over their clothes, masks, weird gadgety type watches that can transform into heat seeking missiles or small vehicles at the twitch of a muscle, or even special shoes. And ok, I know, superman and spiderman look ‘almost’ normal most of the time, but these people don’t even seem to have that geeky persona that makes them look ‘different’ to others, you know, because they are a charicature of the mundane, like Clarke Kent or Peter Parker?
Or like this person.
Yet they must have some kind of special power.
How do I know this?
Well because they are sitting here, on this bench.
But don’t let the pretty plants fool you folks, because those sweet little green things are in actual fact…
These…
Yep, we’re talking stinging nettles again.
Or pickles, as Miss M calls them.
And Mr and Mrs invincible just parked their bum cheeks amidst them.
“Ahhh but Jo, they’re wearing denim. Denim is the protector from all things sore, and stingy and owy.” I hear you say.
But no, nettles laugh at denim and stick their stingy bits right through to the soft vulnerable skin beneath.
So there. I rest my case. They are definitely superheros.
Or their bottoms are.
P.s. Tomorrow it is my blogaversary. Come back and leave me kisses if you get the chance.
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May 20th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
I hate hate hate nettles. With a passion. I would not even go NEAR that bench, even in kevlar clothing.
May 20th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
But what can be more romantic Jo than a walk in the park with your dog and the one you love, stopping to feed the ducks and then back home to rub calomine lotion into each-others soft, delicate under-bits?
Is owy a real word by the way? Glad to see you’re all out and about again. Hugs and kisses: Daz, Lou and the boys.
May 20th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
I wish I had bum powers. And I know that sounds odd but that’s what I like so I’m not deleting it. So there.
May 20th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Dude.
That is funny.
I think even nettles would cripple the Superheroes, though!
May 20th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
tee hee…thanks for the giggles. I will be back tomorrow for wet sloppy kisses!
love you to pieces!
May 20th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Last summer, we had to pick up an entire picnic very quickly and leave our beautiful setting because a random goose was giving us a hard time. I wish that goose had run into some stinging nettles.
May 20th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
Oh, goodness : ) That was just the kind of smile I needed right now. And I’m glad that wasn’t my bottom!
Btw, did you go back for the picture of that park bench or did you already have one? Just curious as to how it came to be.
May 21st, 2008 at 2:00 am
i am intrigued as to
a) what exactly makes the stingy nettles grow so plentifully at this bench! i’m thinking there’s something other-wordly about the bench! please never take me to this bench. i will do anything.
b) why the park maintainer-dude doesn’t get rid of it! i mean, the grass *seems* to be mowed…. what gives, dude? (is what i’d say if i met the dude.)
queen of hearts will be having cake on your blogaversary!!!
nine candles, plus one for your blogaversary.
May 22nd, 2008 at 8:17 am
Mie, they are evil. I didn’t realize you got them over there too. Nasty nettles.
Hey Daz, Lou and da boyz, we’re all much better. And ‘owy’ is a real world in the way that Shakespeare used words, right??
And you paint a beautiful picture. Lucky Lou.
Kim, I bet you do have bum powers. You just don’t know it yet.
Sybil, you might be right. Maybe they’re robots. Or they’re wearing metal pants.
Corey, yay, come to my party.
Momo, geese are evil. Nearly as evil as stinging nettles. They have no manners and they poop everywhere. Tsk.
Erin, I am glad it wasn’t your bottom either sweetie. And I took the photo first as we walked round because we thought it must be the most uncomfortable bench in all of the UK or even the world. I was going to blog it thusly, but then the superheroes arrived.
Holl, the park maintainer dude ONLY mows. He has no other role. They need to get the nettleman in for those I think, and he keeps getting stung so he’s always off sick. Tsk.
And yay Queen of Hearts. What a star.