The Avena fatua (wild oat grass) is mature, dry, and has dropped all it seeds. Now it's just standing "one-hour fuel" for summer fires.

Still green and blooming are Latucta serriola (prickly lettuce) , the enormous Silybum marianum (milk thistle), Carduus pycnocephalus (annual Italian thistle, both isolated and in stands), and a dozen others. (I know them all by sight).

The electric weed-whacker cuts the green plants up into wet cold chunks, pelting my face and sticking to my glasses.