Winter pine

I snapped this photograph of a pine tree while pining for spring and better days ahead. According to this web site, "pine," the tree, comes from the Latin "pinus," which is related to an earlier Indo-European word meaning "resin" or "sap," which pine trees possess in abundance.

"Pine," the act of longing intensely, comes from the Latin "poena," meaning "punishment," which also gave us "pain" and "penalty."

No doubt that the times are doling out pain, punishment and penalty a-plenty these days. Yet in all of the ugliness, there are still pockets of beauty here and there, a bit of warmth despite the bitterly cold winds that sting.

Click on this post's headline for image exposure data. Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2009 James Jordan.