It’s me again. Chess, the border collie. This won’t be so much about me as how I feel about the plants today. Here I am hiding downstairs, pretending nothing is happening.
The first thing this morning, after our walk, the guy I live with got it into his head that there was a cholla that needed to be moved. He says it’s a hybrid between Cylindropuntia davisii and some other horrible knifey stabby thing. It went into the wheelbarrow and that was just about the time I decided to disappear downstairs.
Scary, huh? It went out by the street where visitors might impale themselves on it. At least it isn’t going into the front garden, the one he made earlier this year. That’s scary too.
Then, a shipment of plants came and the wheelbarrow was full again. This looks scary.
The guy I live with says these are mostly plants for containers and I hope they contain themselves away from me and my ultra sensitive self.
He got an Opuntia engelmanii var. aciculata, aka O. aciculata, the common name of which is chenille prickly pear. He had to look up chenille and has no idea why this thing is called that. Talk about scary.
These aren’t in focus, which is just as well.
I think I’ll stay inside for the rest of the year.
the miserable gardener 
Chess maybe you could talk that guy into getting you a pair of thick soled shoes? Trust me you don’t want to step on one of those.
The chenille prickly pear looks just like a nubby bedspread my grandma used to have. Only it was white, and soft.
I know enough to stay away from them. At least I think I do. The guy I live with plants them in places I don’t go.
I learned about ticks yesterday and those are scary too. It thundered this morning, and that’s scary too.
There are some things that aren’t scary, but I can’t think of any right now. Oh, breakfast. That’s not scary.
Nice stuff, but you need not be in fear of such plants. Even lowly cats can maneuver around them without being stuck at all…you won’t let them outdo you, will you? Woof? Agreed?
No. Cats are scary too. One tried to walk into the house last night, while I was sleeping in my fort. Very scary.
how did you manage the rain yesterday?
Only got a quarter inch, but it helped. It usually rains before I plant, not after.
It poured buckets down here 3 times. Even had some thunder.
No buckets here, but ther was scary thunder.
And the hurricane-force winds today?? Yikes!
Not so windy here.