i picked these needles off the trail on a familiar walk, enamored with their sinuousness, and assuming they were maybe red pine needles, or possibly austrian pine needles—two very familiar neighbors in this part of the world. but when i got home i noticed that there were three needles per bunch, instead of two, and not much later, google had informed me that these were the needles of a ponderosa pine, which i had never seen east of the black hills of south dakota. it turns out i have walked under them every week for the last several years. it was like discovering that my next door neighbor, living in a suburban two story house and driving a toyota corolla was actually a cowboy. welcome to the twin cities, pardner.

ponderosa pine needles

vadnais lake, saint paul, minnesota