I was working on the close up when my muse (aka wife-Susan) whispered something about how she loved how the thistle like leaves and buds seem to serve to protect the delicacy of the bloom.
One does not ignore their muse, so I re-framed to make an image reflecting the toughness that surrounded this Prickly Poppy.
These are blooming in great proliferation right now. I love to look over a field of them at night. They reflect the moonlight with a mystical glow and appear as if some cowboy- golfer had been using the desert as a driving range.
This plant is native to Mexico, Southern and Western United States, and has been naturalized in Brazil, Hindustan, Africa, and other subtropical and tropical places. The seeds of this plant yield a large quantity of a pale-yellow latex ooze, which has repeatedly been considered a narcotic throughout history. It has been used as a smudging herb the the Natives of the western US and parts of Mexico.
The herb and flowers are smoked by natives to produce both a euphoric and a mild sedating effect. The whole plant has often been extracted to produce a substitute for a well-known herb, giving it much stronger sedative and analgesic properties, but the latex from this plant is the most potent part, but the most difficult to find as well. Often, just like the Mexican Dream Herb, the dried herbage is often rolled into a cigarette, while a tea is enjoyed to strengthen the effects. It has also been mixed with Tagetes lucida, another herb that is only recently regaining attention as an important psychoactive in the spiritual explorer’s arsenal of tools, with many positive and interesting reports.
Argemone mexicana is an annual herb with bright yellow sap; leaves alternate, simple, with spine-tipped lobes and whitish wax that rubs off; flowers with 4-6, bright yellow petals (cream-yellow or white forms) and many stamens.
Things are not always as they appear on your journey†††nada te turbe†††jim
Shades of Gray - Denison TX 
Fabulous shot…..and tell the Muse that yes the thistle make the shot…combining hard with soft….fantastic contrast
I passed the complement on to my muse. She kinda cleared her throat and raised an eye-brow as if to say “I told you so”. I am sure for a day or two I will get an abundance of over the shoulder editing……..shalom en theos……jim