Can't See the Forest for the Loteria

"The Pine" Loteria Card

"The Pine"
I have a hit and miss relationship with pine trees.  That may sound like an odd thing to say, but it's true.  Trees are great, everyone will attest to that.  They help the planet, provide air for us to breathe and in general are selfless givers of life.  But think about the location for a moment.  Pine trees are deceptive.  They are the liars of the forest.  From a distance they look green and lush, like the ground in teeming with life.  But all the pine forests that I've hiked through, and suddenly there have been many, are in the desert.  They are hot and not refreshing to walk through.  The ground is hard, the air hot and dusty and there is scant food or game to be found.  Forests in Washington are full of berries, birds and critters.  In pine forests you're lucky if you see a squirrel and even then it's a rangy one which has seen better days.
They do smell nice.  Count one for pine trees.
But if given the choice, I'd go for other kinds of forests.  As a side note I had a professor who did his thesis paper on squirrels and pine trees.  The hypothesis he had was that squirrels were able to tell sick trees from healthy ones.  After watching squirrels and pine trees for months, it turned out that squirrels are pretty dumb little guys.  They like sick trees as well as healthy ones.  I suppose to be generous you could say that squirrels abound with love unconditionally.  But still, to a squirrel, a tree is a tree.