…of my thistle field.  (which as of today, went the way of the buffalo.)  They are so stunningly beautiful.  And sharp.  And invasive.  And each of those flower heads has the potential of dropping into my garden 40,000 seeds (says some plant site).  So I photographed the beauty….and then I went at them with leather gloves, long sleeves and pruners.  The “hack at it” method is obviously not a forever solution, but they just had to be stopped this very day before opening those lovely flower heads another centimeter… and let me add that a jacket and leather gloves do almost nothing to protect one from those razor-sharp-hive-inducing spines covering each stem, each leaf, and even the flower heads.  So I loved them, and loved to see them go.