Looking sharp

Some love for nature's prickly characters (6 minute read)

I learned to respect spiny plants the day I caught a cactus bare-handed. I had a little potted prickly pear which I inadvertently knocked off its shelf, so I reached out and caught it. I didn’t even think, it was pure reflex. It landed in my hand and at first it didn’t seem so bad. The cactus didn’t appear particularly spiny, in fact it just had little …