Little Pine Peters

It's that time of year. Pine trees everywhere are covered with the little purple peters that will bless us with yellow cars in a mere few weeks (although as cold as it is at this moment, it's hard to think of that now).

Last year, a co-worker and I were walking from our other office across the road and she walked into a pine branch and got conked on the

head. That made us stop and laugh and see what it was that she had run into. We realized the pine tree we had just walked under was completely COVERED with clusters of beautiful purple pods. I automatically assumed that they were little baby pine cones. That's what they looked like.

I ended up picking a couple (yeah, I know) and taking them back to the office with us. I happen to work with some guys who know a little bit about trees and I showed my little purple prize to my boss. He then explained to me that, no, that was not a baby pine cone. That little purple thing was going to be what would provide the pollen that would be turning all the cars in the parking lot yellow soon. He instructed me to look again at the branches and he said I'd see little tiny pine cones up further on the branch. Well...

I'll be darn. There it is. A little tiny pine cone.

So, anyway, in case you ever wondered what it was that caused the incredible amount of yellowness that we experience in the spring, blame it on the little purple peters.