Photo of a thick, strangely patterned trunk of aspen fallen at a -45° angle across a backdrop of thinner, more tangled aspen twigs, a tuft of straw-colored wintering wetland grasses, and a grey-blue morning sky. Unlike most aspen, which are white and textured with dark eyes, this one is a dark, sodden brown and absolutely covered in yellowish-orange rings gone black in the center, as though she's been attacked by an octopus whose suckers scorch whatever they touch.