Beauties and the Beast

On my golf car ride around the lake this morning in the heat of this unusual September day I spied something I had never seen before, and then I saw something that I never want to see again. There is a lovely old and healthy white pine conifer standing tall. I looked up and the open woody cones were sparkling like diamonds which were attached to their scales. I took pictures, and when I looked closer at home, I realized that the sap was flowing and dripping from them. I hope you can see this when you look closely as I have cropped and enlarged the images. The tree was weeping.

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Then, farther on at the "far end" of the lake where the sign identifies our community, I spotted -  way deep in the bushes - a blue flower, I thought.  It didn't look natural but was in a place where I couldn't get closer so I zoomed in and, when I uploaded my unusual "flower pictures," I was saddened to see it was only blue plastic. It was in at least four different places among the shrubs and grasses. (NOT in the lake, thank goodness!)  The more I looked the angrier I became because I believe that someone is tossing their filled doggie bag in that area as he or she walks around before going home. Who would do this? I despise this action and the person doing it.