Sometimes You've Gotta Stop and Smell the Mutant Rose Tree...

I was out walking and I saw this crazy tree! Its absolutely gorgeous, but it has these formidable spikes that are all over the bark of this thing:

Adding to that, the bark looks positively green in the light:

The spikes continue even up to the highest branches of the tree.

That being said, afterwards I realized that I had no idea WTF kind of tree looks like this, so I consulted the all knowing interwebs with the query "tree with spikes in bark" and viola!

Apparently this tree is called: Ceiba speciosa aka the silk floss tree. It only grows in tropical environments. This time of year there's no flowers yet, but in a few weeks we'll start to see spring take effect and then it will turn into a beautiful boquet of a tree!! Isn't that crazy? Its like a tree had a baby with a rose!

Its pretty cool to learn new things like this. Sometimes we're moving so fast that we really don't take time to appreciate the world around us. I know its cliche, but little things like just taking a walk and exploring the things we see in the environment can really provide a centering force. I've walked and / or driven by this tree probably 100 freaking times and never noticed really how crazy it was cuz I was busy with this or that.

tl;dr CHILL OUT AND SMELL THE MUTANT ROSE TREES

Follow @dick.sledge for more beautiful pictures of water and kitties and bears OH MY