Wednesday, April 24, 2019

A Rainy Afternoon Drive

Saturday about noon and we headed out for a drive.  Before we even got out of town it started to rain. But we carried on and headed for Collingwood, intent on finding some pots of spring flowers.  Eventually, we were successful.

We stopped in to Thornbury harbour to eat our sandwiches, and saw something we've never seen before.  All those black spots are Tree Swallows, zooming around catching insects.  All of them were just in this 100 yards of river, and we wondered why.

Looking closely, it appeared that the waves from the bay were washing in and bumping into the current coming down the river, creating a boiling, churning upwelling in the river.  Presumably the river was churning up the insects, attracting the swallows.  Fascinating!

Just upstream you could see the roaring current of the river, 2-3 feet higher than usual after the steady rains in the past few days.

Looking across the bay, you could see that the ski season is definitely over!

We carried on, but the rain never let up.

In Collingwood we finally found some nice pots of bright yellow Pansies for sale.

We're not sure the Alyssum will survive but Pansies will survive a frost, or even a few inches of snow, without much problem.

By the time we had put the plants down, the flies and bees were arriving.  We're the first on the street to have some spring flowers growing.

14 comments:

  1. The rain was fairly intense here that evening. The spring flowers are a cheerful sight to see.

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  2. April showers brought April flowers to your house. Enjoy the early blooms, you should be seeing more soon.

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  3. That was fascinating about all those churned-up insects causing a feeding frenzy. And those pansies with alyssum are gorgeous! :-)

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  4. What a wonderful drive through Thornbury to Collingwood familiar stomping ground for me, Nice that you got your flowers.

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  5. The yellow pansies are my favorites!

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  6. Our swallows are yet to return - well, they have, but I haven't seen them! Pansies survive right through the winter here in most years.

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  7. Your rainy day shopping trip enabled you to bring home your very own sunshine. Your neighbors will look out their windows and be envious. Spring flowers are always very pleasingly therapeutic.

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  8. I'm happy to see that the inevitable rain (April showers) didn't stop you and by the end of the drive, brought you early May flowers. They are beautiful! I hope the Alyssum survives. I'm not your neighbour but I am envious! ;)

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  9. Love that flower combination. That planter is small enough to move to shelter if needed. Spring is there .... as soon as the rain drops stop falling.

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  10. I love to drive in the rain. (My wife hates it.) Reminds me of summers at our cabin on a reservoir in the desert Southwest. The sage always smelled so good after the rare shower. My dad and I would drive the sandy roads ... a good memory.

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  11. The flowers are so cheerful. Our swallows just showed up a few days ago, love watching then dive & turn and do their aerial dances.

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  12. Love the sweet smell of alyssum. It would reseed itself in my old flower beds. You and Mrs. FG are getting some nice photos!

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  13. Shame about the rain, but those flowers look lovely.

    All the best Jan

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