GOOD NEIGHBORS

There's an old saying (or maybe I just made it up) that when you move to a new neighborhood it's a good thing if you have a cop living in the area.

Far as I know there's no policeman on my street but I do have the next best thing living across the street.

A fire captain!

Actually this is the SECOND time I've lived near a fire captain.

When we lived in Phoenix five years ago the house next door was owned by a captain with the Edmonton, Alberta, fire department.

Anyway, Captain D, my current neighbor, a couple of months ago, bought a vacant lot next to his home and planted a huge garden.

I was chatting with him the other day and noted that, though it was planted late, some of the corn was "knee high by the Fourth of July".

That's a pretty crumby picture of my knee in the lower left as a comparison.

We had a good rain today and SWMBO said his corn will probably grow a foot taller in the next day or two.

But I was also taken by what I found growing in the ditch at the edge of his field.

These thistles, which grow like common weeds, don't look like that much from a distance.

But they show off their beauty when one goes all macro with them.

Judy said this one looks like fireworks.

They're spiky and the green parts of the plant also have those sharp spikes which protect the plant from being eaten by herbivores.*

*Herbivores are animals that thrive on plants.  So says Wikipedia and I won't argue with that.