Thursday, May 5, 2011

A Good Thing






Aren't these blue flowers beautiful? I would never have guessed what they are, though. They are thistles! That's right, this is called a globe thistle, and I came across it in someone's front yard flower bed. The thistle is the national emblem of Scotland, and an ancient Celtic symbol of nobility and character. Of course thistles are invasive and most farmers and gardners hate them. But in fact many parts of the thistle are used for wilderness survival. Milk thistle protects your liver from damage and actually will renew the liver cells, and also prevents plaque buildup in the arteries. And so many of them are actually pretty to look at. So to me, thistles are a good thing.
Then God said "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds. And it was so. The land produced vegetation...and God saw that it was good."

26 comments:

Lisa @ Two Bears Farm said...

We get purple thistles in our pasture but they are a really bad weed and we have to make sure to dig them up and burn them before they take over our hay crop!

They certainly make for interesting pictures!

Anonymous said...

Nature is extradordinary. Such beautiful photographs and I really enjoyed the interesting facts. Have a great weekend!

Anonymous said...

Hi Ginny, Some thistles are commonly used for food, especially the Artichoke. I only have had one really nasty thistle, the Russian Thistle, in our yard in CA. We also had Bull Thistle and Golden Thistle but they were not as bad as that Russian (Invasive and thorny). Have a super day!
Wildlifewatcher (Blogger and WordPress again having issues)

Nikki (Sarah) said...

Ginny...I love how you do this...start with a brilliant header and other photos and then whomp....the nugget of truth. love it. Have a great weekend.

SquirrelQueen said...

Oh Ginny, I love that shot with the bee in flight. Great capture!

Thistles are so beautiful but they get a bad rap and called invasive in many states. Good to see the positive side of this plant.

Anonymous said...

Pretty shade of blue Ginny.

Wishing you a Happy Mother's Day weekend.

aspiritofsimplicity said...

I knew right away it was globe thistle. I love thistle. Did you know that finches love thistle? If you put some in your feeder you will attract finches. Of course, you will also have all sorts of thistle growing underneath your feeder and some will have thorns and spread all over the place. So you would have to really love finches and thistle.

Lynn said...

Ginny, Wish you could see these thistles on my monitor. They are almost iridescent, a silvery blue color. Most likely due to the monitor facing the windows and the sun at this moment, flooding light into the room. You photography is such that these thistles seem to dance in the yard. Hmmm could be HIM giving your beautiful post HIS radiance through your photography. Sounds about right. Thank you for stopping over at my mother's day pic of long ago. They are 30 latter this month, 35 and 37 now. Lol, yes it was a while ago, but came across it while looking for another one and loved the memories of that morning before church. Happy Mother's Day to you my inspiring friend.

S. Etole said...

you offer us so much in your images and words ...

Ann, Chen Jie Xue ι™ˆζ΄ι›ͺ said...

looks similar to a Chinese herb, may be they are the same thin.

yesterday, I came home, lay on the couch and slept in between TV shows.

Got up at 1.30am, it was howling and pouring. I thought we had another tornado.

Regina said...

Woo hoo..(lol) your header is too cool with your background today!! Now I was starting to wonder about where you were! These are unreal-it's a feel I get of entering another dimension or something..
and the bee is terrific!! We have the purple kind here but the blue is pretty!

LV said...

I have seen and heard of these flowers before. Just did not know too much about them. I have been trying to leave comments, but Error 503 will not let me.

Lady Jane said...

Such a pretty flower Ginny and you are always a wealth of knowledge. Happy Mother's Day.

Anonymous said...

It was all good until Adam and Eve got kicked out of the garden... then came the thorns and thistles :-(

Pat @ Mille Fiori Favoriti said...

This is a beautiful Thistle and the bee was certainly enjoying it!

The tree in my blog post is in a local cemetery -- I thought it was a cherry tree but I might be wrong. It one af many beautiful flowering trees there!

Fred Alton said...

You know, Ginny, you are a wealth of information. I had no idea that thistle was that helpful, edible, etc. I have not had any problems with thistle because Frances does all our gardening! ☻

Kim@stuffcould.... said...

These are beautiful, I would never have thought they were thistles. I did not know this info about thistles.

Ruth Hiebert said...

thistles are really very lovelyy.i know theey can cause problems for the farmers,but I can still think they look good.

Ann said...

invasive or not those are so pretty. You got some really good shots there.

Bobbie said...

So pretty. Have a wonderful Saturday, Ginny.

Karin said...

Thank you for featuring the lowly thistle! You have such gorgeous photos of it! I've been taking Milk Thistle for quite a while just to give the liver the support it needs as it removes the toxins from the meds I take for pain. Loved your post!

DawnTreader said...

Nice to look at like this but I guess not so nice to have to deal with as a weed ;)

Thistles always makes me think of Eeyore in Winnie-the-Pooh (he ate them...)

Anonymous said...

It's interesting to know what medicinal properties are found in the most invasive plants. Your photos are wonderful, Ginny.

MadSnapper said...

me to on never seeing a thistle, they are really pretty and very intriguing to me, i am a weed person, i love weeds, but then i don't like manicured gardens so that is a good thing. i want one of these. not good for the hay crop i see from Lisa, its ok for me to have them, we have lots of interesting weeds and no hay

Chatty Crone said...

They are beautiful - guess I thought they were weeds.

God always does know what he is doing.

And your blogger picture - I know Doris would love that.

Happy M/Day! sandie

Dawning Inspiration said...

Those are cool looking!

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