Thursday, October 9, 2008

That darn Prickly Pear!

Found one of my suede gloves on the floor recently. Took a close look at it and was amazed to be able to see these pricklies from the Prickly Pear sticking out of the glove!




They look like a little bit of fuzz growing ever so innocently. It could be a plant stem with some hairs covering it, or an animal's fur! Looks so innocent!!




To get even one of these minute hairs in your skin anywhere is quite annoying. It is just like a splinter that won't go away. We learned about cactus splinters years ago on trips to the Southwest Desert of Tucson. Many varieties actually are drawn to you if you get too close, forget about having to rub up against them. I learned personally, from a too close encounter, to always have all skin covered in walking around any cacti.



When I need to be working on thorny plants, roses, berries, etc, I always put on extra thick pants and shirts to avoid scrapes and clothes becoming stuck on thorns.

I am so stuck in my ways of not throwing away anything that can be used again, and am still hanging on to these gloves. Thinking I might be able to extract all the stickers so as to use them again. But also thinking I don't want to be bothered. It will be up to the moment when I next encounter them, if I decide to try or just to let them go. We are talking expensive, suede work gloves here!!!

2 comments:

Michelle Clay said...

Ouch! I was toying with the notion of trying prickly pear in our front yard, but now it doesn't sound like such a good idea. :) You are braver than I.

marna said...

Prickly Pear is definitely not a plant to have around any children. I have put it in an area which will not get any foot traffic from my grandkids! I am surrounding it by desert type plants where it can commune with its cohorts, just no more pricklies!(One is enough)