Sunflower Adventure!

 Mrs. F.G., always on the lookout for things that might interest me and provide opportunities for photography, found a farm with sunflowers north of Barrie, near Elmvale.  So off we went to find us some sunflowers.  I had called in advance to see if it was wheelchair accessible, and they said we could drive down the tractor trail to get there, so we decided to try it.

Since I don't want to keep you in suspense I'll tell you right up front that we did get to see the sunflowers.

We headed east past Blue Mountain, here the runs of the Peaks ski Club, in their summer colour.

Through Collingwood, down to Stayner and then it was east across the very flat old lakebed of glacial Lake Algonquin.

We crossed the Nottawasga River where it emerges from the vast Minesing Swamp (and which have canoed down in the past, both north and south of this point).

And we found the farm.  When we got out in the field this is what we saw - the sunflowers were all looking the wrong direction!  We had to wait for the tractor and wagons to leave and then we got down to the east side of the field.

I suspect that you've seen those pictures of sunflower fields showing radiant blossoms off to the horizon, but this is a field of sunflowers from a wheelchair point-of-view.  The plants are about 8 feet tall, bordered on this side by a huge pumpkin patch.  You'd need to climb on top of your car or up a platform to get a field-wide view.  

We looked around and started getting a few shots of the sunflower blooms that were looking our direction, really beautiful.

Pumpkins are another part of their business, but they won't be ready for a while yet.  I drove down the pumpkin patch a bit, but it was too sandy for my wheels so I stuck to the recently harvested wheat field.

Driving back to the start of the field we found some great shots of those sunny faces.

More tomorrow.

Just back from a long ride, trying to accumulate some kilometres for my Camino do Santiago challenge.  I've got a long way to go!  I've also signed up for the Nature Conservancy of Canada's Backyard Bio-blitz next week,.  It uses the 'iNaturalist' app, so I've downloaded that and today was a bit of a test run.  I have to be ready for next week.

Several of you commented on my Red Trillium shot yesterday, so I thought I should clarify that White Trillium are by far the most common trillium here in Ontario, but there are usually a few Red Trillium in the same habitats.  Here's a shot to illustrate the White Trillium we have.