I’m very proud of my Scottish highland heritage. I won’t let you know that I’m a proud member of Clan Campbell .

One day back in the Dream Time and long before we moved from the city to the country, She Who Must Be Obeyed arrived home from visiting her parents at their home in the bush.

Normally she returned with some family heirloom for safekeeping at our place .

Oh no, not on this occasion.

This time SWMBO was bearing a whopping great Scottish Thistle. Presenting it to me, prickles and all, SWMBO informed me in no uncertain terms that if I was so proud of being of Scottish ancestry I should sport a tattoo of a Scottish Thistle and she considered that the one I was holding was a perfect model for the required tatt.

Now as it happened, a mate from my Harley Owners  Group Chapter owned a Tattoo Parlour and was only too happy to do the doings on my right calf and used SWMBO’s thistle as the template..

Now we live out here in the bush, if you can really say that living in a country town of almost 30,000 people is living in the bush.

It’s a fact that here in the bush, thistles are detested and cockies( Aussie vernacular for farmers) do their very best to eradicate them.

Most towns people don’t like them either because they are prickly little buggers if you tread on them or accidentally brush up against them. Around here they are classified as weeds.

Now I’ve got a real soft spot for thistles, proved many times over when I get visited by their prickles but I’m used to it by now.

A few weeks back I noticed a nice little thistle growing near the house and felt that if it grew a little larger and sported a few blooms, it might make a nice subject for some photography.

Yesterday when cutting the grass around the house, I bumped into the prickle and immediately appreciated how strong it was and how it had grown quite large, bushy and particularly spikey.

I grabbed my camera and took a few shots to illustrate that prickles can be attractive and quite a nice presence in a country garden.

It’s often said that there is no need to leave home to find something to photograph that will create the basis for a story. Thistles here in our yard have done just that.

By the way, credit for the tattoo image must go to SWMBO who made it this afternoon using her iPhone 6s.

Hoo roo for now.