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Life is too short to eat bad food! Sharing great recipes, farm life, stories and photography from our Northern California dairy farm.

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July 15, 2011

Thistle ~ a lesson in life

The Thistle is something we see a lot of, here on the farm.  My kids know to stay away from these sharp prickly plants, but I often find myself drawn to them. 

They're beautiful in their own way. 

When they've gone to seed and the light is just right, like the other evening behind the calf barn, they're beautiful.


And when they're flowering and full of color, they're gorgeous.
















Nature constantly amazes me with the almost daily lessons I learn from it, if even just the little things.  The thistle's prickly stem works hard at self protection......a mode of self preservation.......not unlike some humans I know.
I'm not sure, but I believe this to be called the Milk Thistle.


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9 comments:

TexWisGirl said...

i think they're beautiful too. and what they don't lend from their own beauty, they attract from butterflies, goldfinches, etc. Not unlike some people we know... :)

Anonymous said...

I love weedy looking thingies. They photograph nicely.

Di

Nancy Grossi ~ Churned In Cali ~ The Wife of a Dairyman said...

@texwisgirl, You're exactly right!

@Di, I do too:)

Tami@NutmegNotebook said...

Nice photos and even weeds are beautiful!

We were in Marin County on vacation last week and saw so many dairy farms. I wonder if we drove past yours at sometime? I posted some photos on my blog of our adventures. We live over in the valley in the burbs and so it's so much fun to go over the coast.

I can't remember how I found your blog but I wanted to let you know I enjoy it.

Linda said...

We call that a canada thistle here;))

Michelle said...

The thistle has quite a bit of legend/folklore surrounding it.

Betsy Banks Adams said...

Interesting info about the thistle.. They are pretty when they bloom... Glad the butterflies and other critters like them... Thanks for sharing..
Hugs,
Betsy

Reena said...

some weeds create the most beautiful flowers!

~Kim at Golden Pines~ said...

Another blog that I follow also posted about thistle and mentioned that each pod has about 200 seeds, with an average of 6,000+ seeds per plant--That's a lot of seeds for the birds and to enjoy and more seeds to create more of them...I like thistle because they attract butterflies and birds which makes for great pictures! :-)