A Walk In The Woods: Pine Cones...

It's spring. Or at least the weather is acting like it's already spring. So no one should be excited about pine cones at this time of year, right? Except for me, of course.

When we bought Le Rustique nearly two years ago, the property had been unoccupied for over five years. The adult children of the original owners had moved away years before, scattering in different directions to earn their livings and establish their own families. Then after the passing of both parents, they hung on to the property they inherited, paying someone to maintain the house and it's surrounding yard, and visiting whenever they could. They walked the wooded acreage they all loved, but with so little time and so much distance, they eventually lost the battle in the forest to the local invaders: red cedar, honeysuckle and floribunda.

[Coming soon: a preview of our attempts to rid that forest of these invaders.]

But back to the pine cones.

There are supposedly around a hundred species of trees in our forest, and we've identified quite a few of them, but we've never found any pine trees. The children of the previous owners told us at closing that they had recently located two pine trees one of them had planted from seedlings as a Boy Scout project - and they are now about forty feet high.

Since I like to decorate with pine boughs and pine cone wreaths for the holidays, I've been on the lookout for those two trees, always wondering, "Is it possible the invasive cedars have already choked them out?" Well, luckily the answer is, "No!"

While Big Daddy and I were walking in the woods, we decided to follow our fence line as it bisects the creek in a thicket behind our pasture. There, on a little chunk of land that is kind of like an island of privacy, we found the two pine trees - still holding on to their pine cones this late in the season, as if waiting for me to get my act together. And since I didn't have my camera on that particular walk, you'll have to trust me that these came from those two trees.

Pine cones still clinging to their branches in spring.

And since it's too spring-like for hanging a pine cone wreath, this is what I decided to do with them. Pardon the photo quality - I've never figured out how to properly shoot glass, especially indoors.

The cowboy roper is an art piece made of horseshoe nails by the late John Kuchera of
 Sheridan, Wyoming. The three bird nests were all found abandoned and on the ground at
LeRustique - one had even been blown onto the doorstep during a terrific wind storm.

This project was inspired by Hope Studios as originally linked by Yvonne at Ink Spillers Attic. Isn't the blog-o-sphere just perfect?