Snowy Walk in a Wyoming November, part 1

We woke up to 6 inches of lovely white stuff this morning. My husband really doesn't like snow so much when he has to clean it off the car and drive to work! I prefer to just look at it myself, but as I told my daughters, this is the only time to find photos such as these...

So, I walked just three blocks - up an alley and back on the street.

I love contrast in my images, so evergreen trees are ideal - especially this pine.

I especially loved that I could see this tiny pine cone developing - closed tight against the cold.

How do I know this is a pine?

• the needles are very long and are not sharp (unless dried)
  You can further help discern which type of pine it might be by looking at the number of needles to a cluster - 2, 3 or 5 generally.

Here is a nearby spruce.

How do I know this is a spruce?

• Well, spruce have sharp needles, as opposed to fir which have gentler needles.
• A spruce also tends to have needles protruding on all sides of the branch whereas the most common firs don't.
• But the color also tells me. I'm not aware of a "blue" fir (though I could be mistaken), but blue spruce are very common in ornamental settings (generally meant to be removed before they reach full size, I guess.)

Survival note: the fresh needles of both trees can be brewed into a tea rich in Vitamin C.

All of today's pictures were taken by myself in 2018 with my Pentax K30.

Today’s post is crossposted at: Steemit, Whaleshares, Bearshares,
WeKu