Snowy Morning

We got a bit more snow last night and through the morning. Only an inch or two but it made the world prettier after the recent thaw that left dwindled and dirty snow banks. On the way home from some errands in Potsdam I pulled over to photograph this tree in a farm field. As a boy growing up in the country they were very familiar to me. They grew in many farm pastures. Livestock left them alone because of the thorns and farmers rarely bothered to cut them in fields they weren't plowing. We always referred to them as Thorn Apple trees.

I have photographed some of this one's kin before. They are quite attractive with snow on them. I'm fond of trees for their aesthetic qualities and can identify quite a few common ones but am by no means an expert so this morning I decided to find out if 'Thorn Apple' was indeed what they are and did some research. I was surprised to learn that Thorn Apples are varieties of Hawthorn. I had never heard anyone refer to them as such, and (for reasons I cannot explain) I had always thought Hawthorns were a Southern and/or British Isles species. I also learned that there are several varieties. I'll have to look at them more closely in other seasons.