A Walk In The Woods At Lunch Time

I have a couple of these ferns in my garden which Marianne gave me from her woods.

 I didn't even know if I captured a picture of the chipmunk.  After enlarging the photo I found him and cropped it to see the little feller.

 In the woods at Fort Washington State Park.

 And does anyone know what these are?

 Giant thistle what a wonderful shape.

 Now this I do know what I called in England a Dock Leaf.  Dock leaves are often found near Stinging Nettles, see below.  As a child I was familiar with both.  We would play at what we called the bottom of the garden.  Mum may we play at the bottom of the garden?  There was an old tin roofed shack, no walls, a stream, wild blackberries and tons of stinging nettles.  Needless to say we were always getting stung.  But the best thing to neutralize a sting is to take a dock leave and rub it on, that piece of information I have known since I was a little girl.

 As you can see from this photo Dock Leaves and Stinging Nettles very often grow in close proximity to each other, now isn't that a handy.

Lovely to get out of the office for my lunch hour.

Christy