Thistle Beauty (And The Bee) - Missoula, Montana

“Do not blame the thistle that you see no beauty.”

- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Thistle Be Gorgeous and Moody - Missoula, Montana

"Josie is a Pye," said Marilla sharply, "so she can't help being disagreeable. I suppose people of that kind serve some useful purpose in society, but I must say I don't know what it is any more than I know the use of thistles...."
- from Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery, Ch. 37

Thistle, Weed, And Wind - Missoula, Montana

"...The wind is not helpless 

for any man's need, 

Nor falleth the rain 

but for thistle and weed..."

- From The Music, in The Collected Works of William Morris: Love is enough : Poems by the way by William Morris (1834-1896)