Pregnant Trees?

While tramping about looking for the CCC camp at Gooseberry Falls I was distracted by several odd looking trees..

Weird, no?  Of course it is some kind of pine tree malady, but it really looked to me as if the trees were pregnant.

And because my brain works this way it got me thinking about Tolkien.

Tolkien created many fantastic creatures but none more exotic than the Ents.  Big sentient ambulatory trees.  You probably remember them from the movies.

Tolkien was always tossing in little details that made Middle Earth such a believable world.  One conversation with Treebeard the Ent mentions in passing that the Entwives - female Ents - have all wandered off and not been seen for a long time.


Well, while not being sure what the gestation period for an Ent actually is, perhaps the Entwives have good reason to not return home.

Just some Saturday morning musings regards tramping around in the woods....