A little purple should always come your way

Burdock

Even burdock is pretty when it’s in bloom. At least I think so.

Of course, in another 4-6 weeks, the blooms will be gone and the dock (or is that the burrs?) will be brown. Dog or Baby Dog will casually brush by them and come home covered in the stickers, which I will need to cut out. By then, I won’t be enjoying them very much.

Burdock was the inspiration for Velcro, or so I’m told. I’m regularly inspired by nature but not usually in that way.

At the moment I find the plant attractive, though any kind of bright purple flowers are hard for me to resist. And since most of the forest and my surroundings are unremittingly green right now, it doesn’t take much more than being non-green to catch my eye.

Even this normally rather annoying weed has its own moment of beauty.  Just because I spend most of the fall trying to avoid it or cutting it out of the dogs' fur doesn't mean that I can't enjoy the few moments of its life when it is more pretty than it is annoying. Nature has a way of putting beauty where and when it's least expected.  Even the burdock has its day.