Friends who have been out and about with me know I will brake furiously for a good flea market and wild bittersweet vines, the latter of which about plunged me into a ravine.
So no big surprise that I would wrestle with a Cholla cactus to get at a dead limb. The Cholla spine is loaded with tiny spikes and from what I hear are extremely painful and difficult to remove and just brushing against one can ruin a beautiful sunny Arizona day which is what the day was when I armored up and set out on the property behind the house I was staying out, which by no coincidence, was on Cholla Drive.
I was later informed that rattlesnakes should have been on my high alert more so than the Cholla spikes. Fortunately I had the pleasure of not meeting either of these two desert warriors and was able to extract ever so carefully a few dead Cholla spines. They are woody, much like a piece of eastern shore driftwood and I love their natural look. Next time I will head out with rattlesnake tongs, well maybe not.
