28/365 Grateful - Catkins & Rain Drops.

The rain is falling much heavier now then it was this morning when I shot this pussy willow, the catkins heavily laden with rain drops clinging to their soft silky grey fur.  As a photo shoot expedition the day was a wash out, I came home wet, cold, and hungry.  But I did find a new place to explore, and I caught a glimpse of a raptor, he screeched loudly at me as he flew to the top of a tall fir tree such an eerie sound.

Of Interest:
The willow (Salix genus) is the original source of one of the most prescribed medicines throughout history  the aspirin.
Perhaps long before the Greeks, the American Indians also used willow to relieve fevers and pain. In the 1800s, scientists isolated the key pain-killing ingredient – salicin – from the willow, and in 1899, the Bayer Company, in Germany, was the first to market aspirin tablets.

http://www.wildones.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/BeyondTheBirdfeederPart6.pdf