Tiny Tuesday : : Thorny

Thorns, burrs, foxtails, stickers , barbs, spikes, prickers, …we have them all. 
They seem to have come early this year since we had a lot of rain which promoted the growth of the grasses in the spring and a lot of hot weather all summer which has dried them out. 

Thanks to deliveries of gravel and the arrival of the chipper truck,  the trail through our field has become a road, lessening the risk of the number of unwelcome travelers in our socks, shoelaces, pant legs and hair, but between us we still usually manage to import quite a few. Some are tiny and leave microscopic evidence of themselves in our fingers when we pull them off. Some , like these star thistles, somewhat camouflaged  amongst the stands of fennel, stab us with their mace-like spikes

OilMan and I thought we'd try walking Ozzie through the remnant of trail that has been made unavailable to us with cyclone fencing, but the city of Santa Rosa apparently has decided that posting a sign denying access to motorized vehicles and off leash dogs is all it needs to do. Maintenance has been deferred to the point of non-existence and the trails have either eroded away or given way to impassable stands of spiky things and returned to nature…an experiment that won't be repeated again.

An added enhancement is that the ticks hang out on the ends of foliage waiting for  exhaled carbon dioxide to drop onto unsuspecting humans or mammals. Spiders spin their webs between branches and gardening becomes an adventure. Rattlesnakes prefer the undergrowth and rarely attack, but if an unsuspecting dog sticks its nose into it's lair, amongst the dried grasses,  all bets are off.

At least I didn't talk about rats today…life in the country is always an adventure.