Thistling

Musk Thistle is a noxious weed. A single flower will eventually multiply enough to take over an entire pasture, choke out everything edible, and consume a firstborn child if one wanders in unchaperoned.

Looking for thistles.

Merrill is brave enough to thistle alone, but Thistler's Mother, or Dad with a cold drink, might lurk in the periphery, just in case the weeds begin to get the upper hand.

Thistler pops off the seed head, then digs up the prickly stalk. Flowers must be bagged and burned, or they will continue to mature and spread their poison, even while the parent plant is decapitated, uprooted, and left in the sun to die.

In spite of this violence, time slows when you're thistling. Slow enough to search out the nest of a red-winged blackbird that flushes as you pass by.