cactus_scratched_skin birdmad I've never been too close to any of the genuinely thorny beasts, it's the other plants that inhabit this place that can rake the hell out of you low thorny weeds whose spikes can flatten bicycle tires and pierce thisn house slippers, the bloodthirsty bougainvillea. The cacti i have met are sneaky, insidious little bastards (and some not so little) The Nopal, also known in some varieties as the Prickly-Pear cactus. You see little wite patches on its waxy green skin and think no harm will come to you. heh. surprise there, stiff little needles, no longer than a few extra hours worth of five-o-clock shadow, but thin enough and clear enough to be nearly invisible while they are playing a mad symphony on the nerve endings of the affected digits. Once, as a kid, i saw a river toad accidentally impale itself on the spines of a relative of the agave plant as it was hopping blithely through the rainy streets that was suitable strange, and amusing in its own morbid way 030527 ... bird wow, my spelling was rather fucked in all of that 030527 ... Snook Saguaro's are amazing, when I was first in Arizona, I thought they were the most interesting thing there. 50 years to grow an arm!! I heard the flowers only opened at night so I stayed up and found one, of course I tried to touch it, and I won't make that mistake again. 050930 what's it to you? who go blather from