Faith, Folklore, and Friends

Thistle: for some, it is troublesome weed. Others say it is invasive. Farmers say it competes with useful plants and its spiny stems interfere with grazing in pastures. Some of us enjoy how it colors the roadsides and stands out in green meadows. To others, it is a banquet, a five-star restaurant, and Grandma's Sunday dinner. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. ~Genesis 1:12

On Tuesday, Hub and I were walking the TVA trail by the river, the one that goes to the Rockpile.  It was quite and peaceful, and for no known reason, I happened to look up in the trees. The owl was so still, at first I thought it was a fake one like my neighbor has in his garden. The owl never made a sound but looked us over pretty good.  I shot this picture and he turned his head away. (Don't yell at me if its not a he. I don't know much about owls.) He turned back to look at us (maybe he was checking to see if we had gone away).  I took another picture and he turned his head away again.  Maybe we woke him up and he was in a foul mood. What? You're still here? I took another picture and he turned his head again.  This time, we had to be really patient.  I told him that if he would look at us one more time, then we would go away. So he gave us one more chance and posed real nice for us, and we left.  All that ti...

Spring is almost gone, and so are the spring wildflowers.  Hub and I were at the TVA Reservation Wildflower Garden yesterday, and we found a few things still blooming. This is a Seven-Bark Hydrangea, and they are growing abundantly along the trail. I remember picking these in the woods when I was a child; they were so beautiful, I was willing to be covered with chigger bites to get them. When I first saw this, I thought it was an old tire.  It is actually a huge vine in a round shape.  I wonder if it started life wrapped around a tree that is no longer there.  The Oak Leaf Hydrangea is at its peak right now.  We have five bushes of it growing in our yard now, but they are not quite as big as the one shown below. In 1999, the Oak Leak Hydrangea was named  Alabama's State Wildflower . We saw a few more things. . . .