What are those little brown dots?!

You know things have gotten out of control with the hedges when their appearance offends yours truly.

I'm pretty forgiving of vegetation that takes on its own shape rather than conforming to society's dictates.

In fact, I thought it was pretty cool this spring when two flowering vines began to weave their way thru the bushes in front of my screened porch. One had red blossoms on it, the other pink. And, they kinda brightened-up things around this little corner of heaven.

Recently, though, their life cycle must've come to an end. Because, instead of the colorful blossoms, all I had running thru the hedge were two dead, brown vines.

So, yesterday I got up at the crack of dawn to beat the heat and tackled the necessary pruning.

The problem is that it is now evident that I should have used gloves before I tried to tame the jungle.

I say that because I discovered my hands are covered with little brown dots this morning.

No, they're not freckles, and attempts to scrub them off have failed.

Perhaps an allergic reaction?

So much for my hand modeling aspirations . . .