Unbridled

You just never know who or what will show up on the Bridle Trail in Redwood Regional Park. Right on cue Kimberly brought her bridled horse out to patrol the park as a volunteer. In the photo below, the horse is begging. Apparently, he really enjoys being petted and relating to people, but has adopted this odd pose to communicate that he wants you to get a horse cookie from Kimberly and feed it to him.

The rest of us hikers, unbridled as we are, were free to explore the mid-winter atmosphere of cool air, moss-covered trees and tall wet redwoods.
Naturally, mushrooms are showing their faces and gills, not waiting for anyone at this stage, since they don’t reproduce like flowering plants do. Instead their spores are the seeds of new life.

I encourage you to get out there while it’s still winter — the moist environment illuminates the trees and plants — and you may feel like you’re strolling through an elves’ forest.