Look at the beautiful colours here, with wild rose and choke cherry and knapweed.

These fruits are acidic and dry-to-the-taste. Only winter freezing sweetens them. In other words, in January they are almost ripe.

Humans are invaders to this landscape, that requires no cold storage, no processing facility, and no absence. Or they would be invaders if they didn’t find beauty in it….

… and protect it, as they would protect their own shelters.  In other words, humans become the people of a place when they accept it as their shelter, their bodies and their homes. Eating it is not the only way. Changing the nature of home is far more successful. You will know you have arrived when you see this bush as the house that is built as an expression of your body in the way a robin’s nest expresses her body…

… and when you see the hips as your eye, multiple, staring out with the inquisitiveness of birds. Until then, you will think I just presented you with some poetry.