Out beyond the bog, we found a universe of pine cone petals arranged in a multitude of galaxies. The apparent center of this universe was a stump where remnants of pine cones, mostly their “petals,” are piled high on the flat “table” surface (see image at left). Looking around, we found a multitude of these remnants arranged in little galaxies, such as the two seen below.

Our guess is that the pile on the stump is from the squirrels and the surrounding galaxies are the work of mice who live in the holes in the ground located near the center of each galaxy.