Friday Skies

As our botany walk progressed up the talus slope to the top of the Niagara Escarpment (see my last post), we came out on the Bruce Trail following the edge of the cliff through the forest.  The skies were beautiful, as was the woods, supporting a carpet of Trout Lilies.  No sign of leaves out on the trees yet though.

We followed the white blazes of the trail through the forest.

Here is the carpet of Trout Lily leaves stretching into the distance.

And at one point we got a good view over Owen Sound, the blue waters of Georgian Bay on the far left. 

A closer look at the old grain elevators in the harbour.  Owen Sound was once one of the major shipping terminals in the Great Lakes, but that's another story!

While still on top of the cliffs we passed several crevices, with patches of icy and snow still in the bottom.

I explored a little around our starting point when the hike was finished, and was disappointed to see this carpet of periwinkle or myrtle, spreading up the base of the talus slope.  It kills off everything else in the way of native plants in the way.  It does NOT belong outside of the garden!

But the bright green leaves of a honeysuckle just unfolding looked great in the afternoon sun.

I also stumbled across the circular stone walls of an old lime kiln close to the bottom of the slope.  That's last year's leaves of a Marginal Shield Fern hanging in front of the rocks on the right.

And nearby was a circle of this year's heavily scaled fiddleheads, just ready to start unfolding.  Plenty of this fern in this habitat.

The small creek nearby was mostly disturbed by nearby houses, but I found one patch of Sensitive Fern fiddleheads just unfolding.

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