An assortment of nurse stumps

An old stump is a great spot for a growing sapling; it lifts it above the light-hogging mosses and ferns, it provides nutrients and good drainage.

Nurse stump with two trees, well established.

But some young trees are more ambitious. Here's one that chose a tall tree as a nurse stump:

There's plenty of sunlight up here! Tall snag with youngster, beside the Campbell River canyon.

Zooming 'way in: this young tree seems to be thriving up there, even in mid-winter. (And no, that's not a rabbit.)

And here are a couple of newborns, just getting settled in:

Evergreen on a nurse stump, a dozen and a half needles, about 2 inches tall.

Same stump, another seedling. Cute, isn't it?

Roadside lunacy

So I'm kilometres away from nowhere, straddling a shrubby ditch, or standing with my nose to a rock face, and a car comes around the curve of the highway. I hold my camera up, clearly visible: "No, I'm fine, my car's ok, I'm not lost, I'm perfectly sane* ..." And the car goes on by. Sometimes people smile and wave.

This time, I was lying on my stomach in a patch of almost-dry moss, when the cars went by. I tried not to look as if I'd collapsed there. At least, I was holding the camera to my eye. No-one stopped.

One lone mushroom.

Evergreen seedlings. Pine, I think. The moss is a Rock moss, probably Racomitrium canescens.

*Debatable.