Summer is Here

For me, summer always arrives when the daisies come into bloom. There are just a few yet, but they're beginning to sprinkle the meadow with their white flowers. A very common flower, but one that marks the seasons.

What otherwise appears as a green grassy meadow, for a few weeks in June and July is a motley collection of white, pink, orange, and especially red as a whole series of meadow flowers come out into bloom.

The Yellow Hawkweed or King Devil is a widespread weed, but in our meadow it's a pretty yellow flower that opens in the sun and closes again at night, brightening the meadow each day with thousands of yellow spots.

My fevourite is the other hawkweed, the Devil's Paintbrush, one of the brightest weeds or flowers of the summer.

Wodehouse Marsh

I've visited Wodehouse Marsh many times over the years; it's one of my favourite birding spots nearby. With a huge marsh area, a beaver dam, and Wodehouse Creek wandering through the middle, it's very diverse habitat. You can walk out on a drier peninsula between the two sides of the wetland, and you're sure to see some interesting birds.



I've always enjoyed watching the large beaver pond; the noise from the fall of water over the dam greets you as soon as you get out of the car. This time it looked like the beavers had actively been raising the height of the dam, so I went to investigate.



You could follow the creek up through the willows and grass, avoiding the ankle-twisting logs and branches that didn't quite make it into the structure of the dam, and climb right up close. The dam has certainly increased in height, backing up a large pond of open water.



Eventually I was able to climb right up on top of the dam, and look past it. Quite a feat of engineering for a few busy rodents!

The World has Turned Green!

Over the last 3 weeks the world has turned totally green, a rich bright spring green. More computer hassles have left me unable to post things for awhile, but hopefully I'm back to normal now, with lots to share. Ferns in spring are one of my favourites, especially when the leaves are just uncurling - all ferns uncurl as fiddleheads like these when they first emerge.

These are the leaves of a northern holly fern just unfolding as fiddleheads, found along the limestone rocks of the Niagara Escarpment.

The maidenhair fern, a beautiful delicate fern found in the deep deciduous woods, with an unusual fan-shaped leaf that doesn't really look like a fern at all.

Finally, a single frond of an ostrich fern after it has uncurled; note the leaflets getting smaller all the way to the bottom of the stem. This is the only species that is actually ok to eat as fiddleheads.

Brilliant Green Leaves in early May

Leaves in the woods in early May, with the sun shining through them, are absolutely brilliant, a bright almost fluorescent green that I can't resist trying to capture in photos.

Sugar Maple

Elm

Dogwood

Trembling Aspen

Primrose Season in the Garden

Most of the garden plants are still spikes of green, emerging from last year's leaf mulch; in another month the hostas will have leafed out, and the day lilies will be almost started blooming. But for now the lowly primrose at the edge of the garden, and the pansies in the planter boxes add a bright flash of colour.

Primrose are only a few inches tall, but they come in a range of bright colours, often with two distinct colours in the bloom. They probably appeal because they are almost the only flower in bloom at this time of year.

The pansies in the planters are bright, but also frost hardy. They withstand the cold morning frosts, even the late April snowfall we had, and bloom happily as it warms up. This year they seem particularly rich with yellow, royal blue, and deep purple blooms.

Spring Flowers

Our Bruce Trail walk at Old Baldy last week netted a total of 27 species of spring wildflowers in bloom! Along with 9 ferns, 2 sedges, and 2 weeds. Among the best photos I got were these 3.

Squirrel Corn

Bellwort

Foamflower

Spring in the Woods!

It's the nicest two weeks in the year as far as I'm concerned. The world has turned mostly green, leaves are coming out, birds and singing, and wildflowers are in bloom. This is the single best month to spend time in the woods with your camera. I think I've taken 300 pictures in 2 weeks!

Led a Bruce Trail wildflower walk along the Mac Kirk Side Trail at Old Baldy last Friday, and the weather was spectacular. Trilliums were in bloom, and we counted 26 other species of spring wildflowers, along with 9 species of ferns.

Somehow the light in the woods is different before the leaves come entirely out. And light shining through leaves, or fern fronds, has to be just the nicest colour of green in the world.

Old Baldy is a good place for ferns as well as wildflowers; these are ostrich ferns unfurling from the unique fiddlehead shape to form a full frond, glowing green in the morning light.