I feel summer on the horizon. It’s in the stale heat that blows through the foothills and settles each afternoon like an overworked dog in our parched valley. The succulents on my balcony, not so long ago fat with water and sending up blooms, have begun to shrivel back into themselves.

We are preparing.

Those of us made for desert scarcity know what comes next, and we look to the hills for the fire.

We are bracing ourselves. Soon the air will be perfumed with sweet burning grass and we will all turn our heads to the billowing plumes and hope they come no closer.

There is nothing to be done for this. The desert was made to burn, to feed itself with its own carnage. We can only be as the cactus and turn inward, trust that we have built our skin thick enough against the white hot sun, that the water stored deep in our bellies is enough to sustain us against the flames. To wait.

We are ready.

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This sassy cactus amigurumi was made freehand with Sugar ‘n Cream cotton yarn and a US 7/4.5 mm crochet hook.

Want to see more of my work? Find me on instagram: @acassafrass or on Etsy: etsy.com/shop/lascosaschiquitas

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