Illustration Friday: Puzzled

Prismacolor colored pencil and graphite 

You know me...when I learn the topic for Illustration Friday each week, I usually start thinking in botanical terms. This week, "puzzled" reminded me of the strange characteristics of the bark of a Ponderosa pine tree in California's gorgeous Sierra Nevada. When you walk through an area with lots of Ponderosa pines, the ground is scattered with what look like jigsaw puzzle pieces. At certain times in its lifecycle, the trees develop furrows in their trunks that display this amazingly unique texture. I only illustrated a single piece in my drawing above, but this is what it looks like on the tree:

This drawing is a collection of some treasures that I collected last summer while visiting my son, a field biologist, who was studying Spotted Owls near Dinkey Creek in the Sierra. (Don't worry, I'm careful not to pick up bits of nature in protected areas.) The small pinecone is from the huge Lodgepole pine, and the moss is sort of a reindeer-type of moss.
My son has since moved on to another of California's natural wonders, Pinnacles National Monument, where he is part of the California Condor study group. He's a lucky young man: here are his "workplace" shots. (The second shot includes my daughter, who turns 23 today—Happy Birthday, E!)

Dinkey Creek, CA     July 2011

Pinnacles National Monument, CA    April 2012