Riding Around - Nelson Street West

Since I ride the same two roads all the time I'm always looking for photos to take.  My photographs are nothing like they once were, but I still enjoy it.  Recently I've been trying hard to open my photograpic eye more deliberately and seek out those little things to share.

I usually head down into the cul-de-sac first, and check out the progress on the last few houses.  This is a small company, so they're usually only building one home at a time.  This certainly isn't roofing as I remember it, when you had to carry the shingles up while climbing a ladder.  Here they've got a boom truck!  Too easy.

Beside that house the big digger arrived one day and scooped out the soil where the driveway will go on the next lot.  That's the very first step toward construction.

Nelson Street West has a few spots that aren't manicured where the weeds and grasses are allowed to grow - the most interesting spots along the entire street if you ask me.  I'm waiting for this big thistle to bloom.  Perhaps the most common weed of all is the Linear-leaved Plantain, mostly not noticed because it's all green.  It even comes up in lawns that aren't mown too often, sometimes quite thickly.  But for a week or tow a tall stem shoots up with infinitely small white flowers.  Those are not the leaves of the plant; I'll try to find a good picture that shows them.

I also pass the home I call the decorated house, decorated with all manner of things.  The lady was out in the front yard and I said hello and we had a nice chat.  She's been sewing during the lockdown and now has a variety of masks for sale.

This is just one of the many decorations in their yard.  Cute, don't you think.

I've been so desperate for things to photograph I've started to try and identify grasses!  If I'm correct the one on the left is Smooth Bromegrass and that on the right is Orchard Grass.

This is Timothy, popular with the cattle in the pasture or in hay.  I'm crediting 'Pasture Grasses Identified', a publication of the Ontario Ministry or Agricultue and Food for what I've learned, and hope I've interpreted the diagrams correctly.  I found it impossible to get a really clear picture of this one.

This patch of purple Vetch struck my eye.  But it's been mowed down since.

I thought I might write a post just about trees and the shade they provide, for on the hot days I've been riding quickly from one patch of shade to the next, and stopping to enjoy the breeze.  Yes, the breeze.  Not only do big deciduous trees create shade, there actually seems to be a bit of a breeze under the trees, definitely cooler than the long stretches of hot sun.

On the way home I ride around this corner.  The Bird's-foot Trefoil is growing well, and starting to spill over the edge of the curb.  Almost all the roads on this route have no sidewalks, so I'm riding on the side of the road.  Mind you, they don't have much traffic either.