Foxglove

Digitalis purpurea 

Digitalis means "finger-like" in Latin, because the flower can slip easily over the finger.  This one showed up as a pretty volunteer by the back gate, since I've never planted foxglove in the yard.  The digitalis plant produces effective cardiac medicines, approved fairly recently by the Food and Drug Administration.

Use of digitalis is in decline, no doubt because the pharmaceutical companies have developed much more expensive alternatives for congestive heart failure, like the pills we see advertised on the evening news with the terrifying side effects. I wonder sometimes who is brave enough to take those drugs.

So here we are, looking ahead to a welcome 3-day weekend.  Monday is the first official day off work for John since New Years. No, Boeing does not give its workers a holiday on Presidents Day, or Veterans Day, or even Indigenous Peoples Day (as we must call it in Seattle.)

We rarely stray far from home on Memorial Day weekend; the traffic is horrendous and you need to make reservations far in advance to stay just about anywhere.  The weather looks decent, not especially warm, but dry with our friend the marine deck hanging around in the morning.  The hardworking man of the house has been forewarned about my long overdue cleaning project in the basement.  Knocking down cobwebs and actually vacuuming behind stuff for a change.  Hopefully we'll find a few fun things to do as well.