Back Alley Christmas Boughs

Sandy Bear here... today we are on an outing to find boughs for Christmas swags and arrangements... We have a fairly lengthy wish list:

• balsam
• fir
• pine
• cedar
• variegated cedar
• blue spruce
• holly
• res ossier dogwood

Luckily... I pay close attention the rest of the year... And I didn't even have to visit the old Arboretum... (they have cool trees there!)

Like... this is our river spot where we take Rose... it's beary high but... I noticed...

Oh... hmmm... where'd all the trees go?

There were a bunch of old cherry trees here! All gnawed down by...

Beavers!

I wonder if they're planning to dam the river... that would be ambitious. Luckily they don't like...

Balsam! As I was saying... over the summer, I had noticed some super nice balsam trees down here...

They have great boughs and we took a few...

Whew... hard work...

While we were here... we scored some Douglas Fir as well...

They make a nice cushy resting place for little bears...

As for the rest of the boughs... we have to do some back alley (dark-of-morning) foraging... for boughs that hang over front fences and the like... Shhhh... don't tell anyone!

Alright... here we are...

Look thataway...

And thataway... and...

...clip those boughs!

Oooh... and some variegated cedar...

Are we done?

Let's go!!

Oh... and as an aside... remember those new boots from a few weeks back... total bear patties... so we're back to Merrell's!

And here we go... a nice haul of blue spruce...

And this... which we think it is a Giant Sequoia (maybe Little Fox knows? Cause he named his dog Sequoia!)... It's not native to our area... but it looks cool with the grey-green fronds.

Big bushy pine boughs... These weren't dark of morning... they just grow near an overpass!

Some with pine cones!

Holly with berries...

Western red cedar... (also not dark of morning...)

Variegated cedar... it has bits of yellow on the fronds...

And some red ossier dogwood... this was beary hard to find... the primo patch from last year was in a ditch and some road maintenance team had whacked it away! But...  we found a nice patch in the ditch across from the dump...

Whew... what a great adventure! And we'll have to wait and see what the final products look like... stay tuned. Oh... I'm not working on them... I am just the forager!