This! This is the reason God made Hawthorn Bushes. I forget all year that there might be a good thing about these horrible, thorny and obnoxious weed bushes. When I see this scene in the winter I remember something good about Hawthorn Bushes.
This makes me forget the thorns tips broken and stinging in my arms after running into the bush after a lamb or calf. Having the thorns gouge me in the eyes trying to rescue a runaway critter. Tangling in my hair until Russ has come and get me out of the thorny patch. They have a poisonous property somehow because if we get too many cuts or pricks then we swell up and those spots hurt for days.
But most of all, I hate how many of my favorite shirts these things have stolen from me. They snag worse then nylons. I am repairing holes in all my clothes from these powerful needles. We cut, burn, saw, and they come back faster then not.
Here is a picture of one branch of the terrible spines that a Hawthorne Bush carries. I lose every time I have a fight with one.
These are choke cherry bushes that we cut down to clear the driveway.
This reminds me of sticks of rock candy. Doesn’t it you?
The fog had set in and really made everything white. A slight ray of sun is peeking through the clouds. I can drive down this and feel the peace and a relaxation come over me. I really do have neighbors all around me, but you can hardly see any of them from here.
Each plant becomes a sculpture in its own right. The little puzzle pieces of frost that are connected to each blade of grass, branch, even on the leaves building on each other are simply remarkable.
Another picture of our road.
It is about 10 degrees outside with the sun shining, and I know this will soon be gone but I love the look and feel of this every time I see it. The next thing will be to see it laden with snow, and the road snow packed and crunchy. We live on a wildlife migratory route, and we see a lot of deer and bear crossing here. We see deer passing every week or so, and bear every spring and fall. We have a sow who has a couple of cubs every year, and she hangs out in our creek every fall.
Right where the shadow is of me taking the picture is about where the creek is and this is the migratory route.
Last spring Ben was stringing woven wire fence for the sheep when he heard some unusual grunts and splashing in the creek. A little nervous, he looked up over a bush between him and the creek. Nothing showed so he went back to tightening the woven wire. He heard it again, only a lot louder this time. He felt the hair rise up on the back of his neck. and hair follicles (skin of a chicken as they say in Spain) traveled up from his ankles to the top of his head. He slowly stood up again really watching everything to see if anything moved or was out of place. The color left his face and his eyes grew big as he watched first the nose then the face of that mommy sow peering at him over the bush he was standing by. She opened her mouth and bellered at him a good one. His heart started to pound in his ears and his thinking went something like this. “That is the sow and the only thing between her and me is this partially strung fence, that little bush and as fast as I can run.” He said he dropped the stretchers and fencing pliers, turned around and ran so fast that he cleared that six-strand barb wire fence without breaking stride. He arrived in the house white-faced, excited and happy to have made it in all in one piece. He said, “I was afraid to look back just in case it slowed me down some and she nab me.” Then he said, “Well, I decided to take a little break from fencing until that sow leaves the area.”
I was thankful he didn’t pass out at the creek or bring the bear in the house with him.
This started off as a story of our gorgeous landscape, but turned into the adventure of a bear.
It was the photograph of that part of the road where they cross that did it. Couldn’t have been me.
Here are some more pictures of the beauty of nature.
More landscape pictures
Isn’t this astonishing? Some of it is tall grass and behind it is a bush. Not Hawthorn, thank heavens. I enjoy this every winter. God’s own painting.
This is more of the tall grass and bushes with trees in the background. The wind that blows out of one of the canyons makes the foliage lean to the left.
I am so thankful that we have the views from the photographs above because they could have been burnt up in this. This is a picture of the fire by my place this summer. I took it out my front door. I don’t remember how long it took to get this big but about 5 hours I think.
We were never in any danger that I could see but a lot of our neighbors were in a very dangerous position.
While fire is part of nature as well it just doesn’t leave such nice sculptures behind.
