Sunday, September 14, 2008

Baby Pine Cones

When I was a little girl, my parents would take us to the mountains for a respite from the heat of our desert valley. I thought it miraculous that we could go from 100 degree weather to the 70s in two hours. Like most fantastic trips, we used an enchanted passageway, in this case a tunnel bored right through the heart of a granite peak, to get to our Uptopia. The tunnel was spooky for this little kid, but I knew if I could brave it out, my beloved mountains awaited me on the other side.

I loved everything about these trips, from the smell of fresh mountain air to the quaint old lodge where we stayed. The Lodge even had peacocks strutting around the grounds, and on one terribly exciting occasion my older brother and his friend lured an enormous peacock inside our room while my parents were elsewhere.  We sure knew how to have a good time! 

I always made it a point to collect pine cones freshly fallen from the soaring trees above my head.  I figured that if you could take sea shells from the ocean and still hear the sounds of the shore when you returned home by placing the shell up to your ear, surely you could take the pine cones and experience the grandeur of the mountains once again no matter where you went.  Pine cones still thrill me now, though I no longer put them in my pockets and take them home. I may pick one up from time to time to admire how each one is uniquely colored and shaped, but then I return it to the bower of the soil in hopes that it will grow into a new tree.


For all the years I have been enjoying pine cones, it never occurred to me to wonder what they looked before they turned into the brown pine cones that are on the ground. Sure, I see paler, brown pine cones still clinging to the branches all the time. Then on last week's hike, I practically bumped into these guys on a low branch of a tree:  


Bitty-baby pine cones--A new joy for me to behold!

8 comments:

Annapurna said...

Thanks for sharing your memories and the reasoning behind why my kids bring home all kinds of darnest things :-)

I have never seen a baby pine cone while it was still green. Thank you again for letting me see through your eyes.

Lottery Girl said...

Dear Annapurna,

I am glad you enjoyed the post!

Admin said...

I love pinecones!
I have a small collection. And they are a major trigger descriptor for the eye color of my WIP hero.

Lottery Girl said...

Dear Rhonddalyn,

I MISS YOU!!! Now we have something else in common--a love of pine cones.

That sounds so interesting about the eye color!

Admin said...

Yes Pinecone in common! I had to come up with something appealing that was brown... and the good gooey ones like mocha and chocolate weren't invented yet in his time.

Lottery Girl said...

Dear Rhonddalyn,

That really does sound like an awesome and sensible description. I didn't think about it until you said it, but there really eyes like pine cones--brown with gray coloring. My grandmother and father have eyes that color, while my sister's brown eyes are more carmel-colored.

Perhaps you would be willing to send me a snippet sometime? (I'm such a clever beggar!)

Admin said...

I put a small one on the Forum... this week...if you don't want to go there and hunt for it...I'll put it in our special place. >g<

Lottery Girl said...

Dear Rhonddalyn,

Let me go to the Forum and see if I can find it...