Ironcraft au Natural!

This challenge was a head-scratcher for me. I kept trying to think of what I could do that used all natural, outdoors materials and then I remembered a trip I took with my family years ago. We were driving down to Myrtle Beach. We stopped on the highway at this place with play structures so my son could let off steam. It was in North Carolina I think and you could still hear the cars whizzing by but what was amazing were the trees. There were these huge fir trees, some of the tallest I'd seen. And at the bottom of these trees were the biggest pine cones I'd ever seen in my life. I just had to take some home, not really knowing what I would do with them besides admire them. I had these visions of a Santa's village with the pine cones acting like giant fir trees. Well, that was 12 years ago and I still don't have a Santa's village but they did inspire this challenge.
So, I painted the ends with green and red paint and glued them to a flat rock I had in the flower garden. They looked a little lonely so I went back to the shed where I kept the pine cones and the decorative rocks were sitting on the counter waiting for me. I glued them next the "trees" and made myself a nice little nature scene to sit in my flower garden. They have the words; Truth, Wisdom and Compassion engraved in them. Words I try to live by. The gargoyle got a kick out of the whole thing. He's smiling so he must approve.