Lisa and I headed up the creek with Lola and Willow. It was chilly with frost on the windows. It would have suited me to go towards the sun on the west side, instead we went east where the mountains get bigger, taking the sun longer to rise.
Not much water in the creek up high, plenty of rose hips and cones on the spruce, the winter birds will take advantage.
Lola stayed on leash because she is a puppy and we haven’t quite have her figured. If she went after something I don’t trust my ability to chase her down.
We watched the sun rise through the low spots in the mountains, lighting the shadows and turning the trees colour.
Palliser Pass 
mountaincoward
Is there something else in that fir tree besides fir cones? It just looks such a mass of stuff and it looks like little fungi sticking out.
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underswansea
Hi Carol, good eyes. It is a spruce tree. Very mush like a fir tree. This has been a good year for cones. The birds will be happy in the winter. they break the cones for the seed inside. The cones in the photo had flowered. The ‘fungi’ is dried flowers. Flowering is unusual as well and doesn’t happen every year.
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mountaincoward
That’s fascinating – I’ve never heard of a fir-type tree having flowers. And it’s pretty unusual for something to only flower sometimes outside of the rainforest (and perhaps my garden too!)
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Julie@frogpondfarm
Top shots Bob! That leash sounds like a great idea …
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