Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “start with a noun.” Start your post with a noun, and write about whatever it is. Have fun!

Pine trees are supposed to be green. If they aren’t then something is wrong, right? I was driving my favorite commute route home after work a few days ago. It is a two-lane state route that snakes along a river and through woodlands, hills, farms and small towns. (And yes, it makes me exclaim every time I’m on it that I need a camera.)

In the forest parts of the drive there are roughly equal amounts of evergreens and deciduous trees. It took me several minutes to realize what it was that was bothering me. The trees didn’t look “right.” Tracts of pine weren’t green. They were yellowing. Are they dying? They don’t have the rusty brown needles of truly dead trees, but was this the first stage? I remember reading that this area had a problem with acid rain years ago, is it back? Is there a regional insect targeting a specific species? I was worried.

The highway doesn’t have a lot of places to pull over and there is traffic on the road, so I couldn’t slow down to have a look. Yes, I was that concerned.

I did, finally, find a place to stop and to play environmental sleuth. Approaching the branches of an afflicted pine tree slowly, because I hate bugs, I didn’t have to get too close to realize the problem. “Holy shit! It’s POLLEN!” were my exact words. I was more horrified than if it had been bugs. Acre upon acre, for miles and miles of forest road and obviously up into the hills and mountains, pine pollen. The trees are in the midst of a very public orgy.

My dark blue car has been covered in sticky yellow green for many days, but where I park I knew it to be pollen from trees that I know I’m allergic to, like oak. I just had no idea about the pine tree horror. Since I didn’t immediately die from an asthma attack when I got up close and personal to the sticky mess of a tree, I’m assuming pine pollen is one of the few of which I’m not deathly allergic. Nonetheless, I’m keeping my distance. Get a room, pine trees, get a room!

This post brought to you by the exclamation “Holy Shit!” and Sudafed (buy stock in it).

If you want to be amazed and horrified too, watch this short YouTube video:

9 Comments

  1. As *soon* as i read “pollen,” I thought “ooh, I’ve gotta find that video I saw on Reddit!” Scrolled further and there it was. Makes me want to sneeze just looking at it. I’m glad the trees weren’t dying at least!

    Liked by 1 person

  3. That video was amazing, and scary to see so much pollen! We don’t live around woods or pine trees (there are a few around town that someone planted) so I had no idea they even had pollen! 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  4. Here in Georgia, everything (and I mean everything) is covered with at least some, and sometimes a lot of pine pollen from mid-March until late April. It doesn’t bother me much, but Mary practically needs an asthma inhaler to get through the season. It gets so bad here that the meth dealers are trying to turn the meth back into Sudafed…

    Liked by 2 people

Comments are closed.