Got Prickers?

I remember a quote or at least the beginning of it. "Now is the winter of our discontent..." With the days getting shorter for almost another three weeks and then 3 weeks more to get back to where we are now, Ed has some discontent.  Actually, like a kid stuck indoors after a week of rain, he is downright grumpy. What could that possibly have to do with prickers?  This morning prickers made us both laugh out loud. We were positively giddy with tear filled eyes!  Prickers don't look funny, they look painful. It was the sound of the word.  If you write prickers on the blackboard in any classroom, I guarantee giggles will breakout.   Both of us call these prickers even though our childhood's were spent in different states. Blackberry canes is a more proper term.  Briers is another word used for these plants.  Imagine the literary plea,"please don't throw me in the pricker patch".   So how widespread is the use of  the word prickers?  What do you call them?

I realize that there are lots of city gardeners who never see prickers. We have lots of prickers here. There are big patches where the rabbits hide and the birds nest. Prickers provide them with  protection and food. If you find yourself  stuck in the middle of a pricker patch, it's not quite so funny. Perhaps prickers are only funny when you are outside the patch looking in. All this frivolity about prickers was brought up when Ed looked out the window and discovered that his blue tarp had blown off the tractor and landed in the pricker patch.

In my mind I pictured the blue tarp stuck in the middle of the prickers, but when Ed returned with the pictures for my pricker post, I discovered that really the prickers saved the tarp from blowing far away. Blue tarps can be funny too, but that another story.