It appears to be a formica (or possibly granite) countertop that has not been properly cleaned.

Three individual seeds from a coniferous tree of some kind, but I can’t say which species.

I have no idea what those are, but it looks absolutely creepy.

… so disappointed to click on the comments and not see something from ubertramp.

Some kind of pine or larch or conifer seedpods off the cone? They’re beautiful. They look like tiny birds.

Sorry, fikshun. I had a lunch meeting where we got to discuss fun things like developing university policy for more efficient navel gazing and moving our archives into the 20th century (the 21st century upgrade’s gonna have to wait a few years, it seems). I only just now got to see her picture.

Anyway, I think Brian’s on the right track. They are definitely conifer plant seeds. But it suddenly becomes clear why Dawn feels drawn toward the Northwest. I had heard a rumor some orders of the Technomage Illuminati perform a ritual on the last full moon before the spring Equinox.

I suspect that there is a small pool near her home, possibly of glacial origin, surrounded by three or five conifers. I can’t be sure which because I don’t know the specific rituals of Dawn’s TI order. If there are three trees, the trees represent the Maiden, Mother, Crone triad. If five, they are the 5 elements Air/Gas, Water/Liquid, Earth/Solid, Fire/Plasma, and Soul/Life. I’ll leave that to Dawn to clarify.

Since the equinox is this Friday, I’m guessing she collected these seeds last Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. Probably skyclad, despite the chill in the air. She must have also collected three handfuls of water from this pool while the moonlight reflected on its surface.

Next Thursday, on the night of the New Moon, she will put these seeds in a ceramic mortar and pestle and ground them up into a fine powder. Then she will add the moonlight blessed water. After a few incantations, the result will a powerful resin. I can’t say how she will use the resin, but it is usually used to stain wooden ceremonial objects like wands or cups. Sometimes a staff or a totem, but these are generally larger rituals involving 3-5 mages and tend to be rare events. Sometimes the resin can also be used to preserve certain objects of value, be they flowers or clovers or what have you, much like fossils encased in amber.

In North America, the seed of choice for this type of resin is, of course, the giant sequoia. Which, of course, is why Dawn lives up there. But this may not actually be a sequoia. I just don’t know.

Ubertramp – you make these Wednesday posts a complete delight for me – and you have a following as well! Thanks. I have the perfect picture in mind for you next week…

Ha! I completely missed yesterday, but I was going to guess pieces of roasted garlic. Do I get a prize for having the most-wrong guess?

They really looked like poor little dead manta-ray bats.