6/3/2017
A couple days ago I was walking along a hillside close to home around 7pm. Thunder was rumbling near me so I could hear it in my insides. I could see 40 foot swaths of pale yellow Ponderosa pollen blowing in waves through 100-foot-tall trees―streaming―undulating―pushed by the approaching rain storm. I could feel the particles in my eyes.
Ponderosa trees produce separate male (strobili) and female cones. The pollen produced by male cones is carried to female cones by the wind. Pine trees have been doing such things for around 300 million years and on my small walk I got to be in the midst of this life force. (https://www.nps.gov/romo/pine_pollen.htm)
Two nights later, near dark, I walked by evaporated puddles edged with pollen and took some photographs with my phone camera. I am always amazed how the elements leave their marks and through these marks I get to experience a visceral sense of the movements and interactions that are always around me.
