Pat's Walking Photos
Today’s Walking Photo: Hey, sorry about missing yesterday. I was sick and in no condition to walk, or even post an old photo. It was touching how you guys kicked up a fuss and wondered where I was. (HA!)
Anyhoo. I didn’t really feel like walking...

Today’s Walking Photo: Hey, sorry about missing yesterday. I was sick and in no condition to walk, or even post an old photo. It was touching how you guys kicked up a fuss and wondered where I was. (HA!)

Anyhoo. I didn’t really feel like walking today either – I still felt mildly crappy, plus it was raining too. But hey, life is prickly sometimes and it doesn’t seem to care if you don’t feel quite up to doing the stuff you know you should. So I went and it wasn’t that bad, and lo and behold, speaking of prickly, I found this prickly thing. Any botanically-inclined types out there are welcome to tell me just what the hell it is.

The moral of the story is to keep your chin up. Even with all the gloomy black-and-white prickly bits, life is full of joyful, colorful fuzzy things as well. Trust me.

[Addendum: The very interesting Tumblr user intotheurbanwilds was good enough to reblog this post and add the following valuable info: “It’s a sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua) ‘gumball.’ Birds love the seeds, and it supports plenty of caterpillars, too. One of my favorite trees.” As to the question of what it’s doing in Oregon, I wouldn’t have known without your input that it isn’t common here! But I guess someone had a notion to plant a dang sweetgum tree in their yard, and apparently it’s done okay here in the soggy Pacific Northwest. Next time I walk past this spot, I’ll have my eyes peeled to find the actual tree. Thank you for your help, intotheurbanwilds!]

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