A wet week

This was the scene in the salt marsh a week ago Sunday. We haven’t seen the sun since then.

With a few exceptions, we missed our usual walks and excursions this past week because of the miserable weather, cold, wet and windy.

Of course my husband and I had to keep moving. It is an important part of our days, for the social interactions and the healthy increase in heart rate. A day without a walk is possible but not a week. Besides three days on the boardwalk, we walked the track at Credit Union Place, locally referred to as CUP, an excellent recreation facility in our community. 

While we much prefer the outdoors, CUP is a great substitute on occasion. There were a few days I walked on the treadmill at home which is the least preferred walk for sure. However I find it bearable if I watch YouTube as I proceed.

Meanwhile, on those days on the boardwalk, despite the weather, the ducks were enjoying the marsh. Walkers sometimes leave food for them and some ducks are not as skittish now as they once were when walkers approach the gazebo. Others still escape to the bay. 

We also saw Bluejays, 

Song Sparrows which blend into the environment

and Black-capped Chickadees. 

Squirrels were out and about one day when the wind wasn’t as high.

The wind was so high last week though, the marsh flooded at high tide and the ducks disappeared off-shore for a day. 

Also off-shore, Black Scoters gave their plaintive call which helped distinguish them from the ducks in the distance.

Meanwhile, on the home front we are still eating tomatoes from our garden which are ripening in the house and will be for another few weeks. The garden has yet to be put to bed for the winter due to the miserable weather and it isn’t likely to happen this week either. The forecast for this week is no better than it was last week.

I hope you have better weather! Have a great week regardless!

A week in November

The weather this past week has been an interesting combination of clear skies, wind, rain and minuscule snowballs from above. My husband and I walked through it all, enjoying whatever nature offered us, revelling in our ability to do it. Every experience in nature has something new to offer and we continue to look for it and enjoy it as long as we can.  

This view of North Rustico was on a windy day at low tide. The high wind made it difficult to hold the camera steady though the scene was peaceful.

The Millman Heritage Road is a place we visit seasonally. The road is cut deep into the red soil in an area where homesteads once thrived. The road is lined now with deciduous trees, providing a natural border for the fields which continue to be farmed. In more protected areas, leaves still cling to the trees for another few days. 

This year, silage grew in those fields and was recently harvested.  

From the Millman Road we visited the New London Lighthouse, where the path to the beach always draws us onward. 

Since lobster season is long over, most of those boats have been pulled out of the water by now. However mussel boats still can be seen pursuing their trade for another few weeks before the sea freezes for this winter. Here at New London lighthouse, the boats steer into a channel close to the shoreline where the channel is deep.

There, on an overcast day, the light breaking through the clouds gave the impression that the sun is drawing water as is the common saying. It was difficult to photograph however.

Another windy day, we stopped at the mouth of the Wilmot River where it empties into Bedeque Bay. This is a favourite area of birds, especially at low tide this time of year. Thousands of Canada Geese and various species of ducks were enjoying the protected area. 

American Wigeons were a new species for me.

Later that day, we stopped at the Malpeque basin on our way to Malpeque and watched gulls and ducks in the bay. On the opposite shore, what looked like an observation deck had two people watching a flock of ducks as they took flight. 

At the wharf at Malpeque, several mussel boats were tied up. 

We walked to Cabot beach and watched another boat make its way through the sandy channel into the harbour.

The colours of the sand and the autumn Marram grass make a beautiful backdrop for driftwood on the beach. 

On our way home, we stopped at a field where a donkey grazed near the road. It was curious and watched me as I photographed it. 

My last photo today is of the salt marsh along the boardwalk where we walk most days. It is snowing in this photo which shows as faint lines over the water areas especially.

Island news:

In a troubled world which causes so much worry these days, there are times we are reminded in our own lives how fortunate we are. This message popped up on social media on the island this past week. “Notice! Two cows running east on Kilkenny.” It can be quite dangerous suddenly to come upon a cow on the road. This is what we have to be on the lookout for on PEI, roaming farm animals. We smile and appreciate our island home.

On a personal note:

My husband’s Aunt Marie died this past week. Marie was more like a sister to my husband as the youngest of his father’s siblings. The two had some great childhood memories together and we were close through most of the years since.

Marie was a single mother who worked hard and raised a wonderful son. She had a super daughter-in-law and two handsome talented grandsons. Marie died after a short battle with cancer.

We miss her already!

Ducky days

The weather turned cold this past week and for several days the wind was high. For a second week, the absence of Great Blue Herons is noticeable. However my husband and I walked the boardwalk as usual and had a ducky week there watching the Mallards and Black Ducks. 

The salt marsh is home to a flock of mixed ducks these days, since the water is slow to drain out of the marsh due to the dam of seaweed at the mouth of the stream. 

Mallards add the most colour to the marsh, the males with their green heads and the females with their beautiful markings.

A pair of Black Ducks have been long term residents of the marsh, but this past few months, they have increased in number as the marsh has flooded.

This smaller duck is not a common sight this late in the season. 

Another rare sight here is this hybrid duck, with green marking on the sides of its head and combination of Mallard and Black Duck markings on its body.

The scene from the nearby bridge can look different depending on the cloud cover, the wind and the tide. 

These two photos were taken just over a week apart at the same location.

Winter jackets have been moved to the front of the closet this past week. Temperatures in the low single digits now take some getting used to, as the hats and gloves make walking more comfortable. Snow one morning didn’t accumulate but was a reminder of what lies ahead.

Meanwhile, a nearby street which two weeks ago was golden,

has lost much of its glow but kept its character. 

Along the boardwalk, many of the trees are leafless now. Only the Tamarack/Larch has any golden colour these days, always later to change than the deciduous leaf-filled trees.

One day this past week, the temperature rose to 16 degrees Celsius among days of 5 degrees. That afternoon my friend Liz and I went for a walk along the beach in the Evangeline area not far from Summerside. Afterward we sat in our chairs on the beach and enjoyed our pumpkin spice coffee, brought in our thermos from home.

We sat near a stream that trickled into the sea which lapped the shoreline. A piece of driftwood was a reminder of the power of the sea. Such a day so late in the season was a pure gift of nature.

And on a colder morning, a Red Squirrel was busy collecting seeds from an evergreen along the way as we walked the boardwalk. Winter preparation is upon all of us!

Have a wonderful week! 

Through the leaves

This past week started at the Dunk River Trail in central Prince Edward Island. The trail is one of the most beautiful on the island and draws us for a walk there with the changing seasons. Our autumn visit is our favourite for obvious reasons. We always park near where the Dunk flows out of Scales Pond, which looked particularly serene last week.

The entrance to the trail is deceptive. The trees at the entrance were green still, which is hugely different from what one encounters after passing under these green sentinels. The trail was leaf covered with promises of more to come. 

Overhead, the blue sky was a perfect backdrop for the reds, yellows and oranges clinging to their mother branches. 

The river moved to the rhythm of the earth as it rippled through the shadows, 

the remaining leaves casting a red glow here, yellow there. We stood in awe at the scene. AI did not generate this wonder.

We also visited the Cavendish area again last week for a picnic in the Grove on a sunny autumn day. Although the wind was blowing a gale, the Grove is sheltered and peaceful. The photo shows the view from our picnic table.

Later we drove along the coast to North Rustico where several huge flocks of Canada Geese greeted us in several locations, this one in the harbour at North Rustico. 

We had an abbreviated walk along the boardwalk there but the wind made walking difficult. You can see from the grasses and bushes in the photo the strength of the wind.

Along the boardwalk in Summerside this past week, one day was particularly calm and we watched the gulls and crows argue over food the gulls drop from heights to break the shells for the morsels inside. I fully expect the crows to start gathering and dropping the shells like the gulls though their beaks may not be able to do it. Crows are intelligent enough to know what to do however.

A Solitary Sandpiper is still feeding in the salt marsh and a male Red-winged Blackbird gathered seeds left along the bridge by walkers. This is late for both species to be here on the island especially since temperatures have plummeted the last few days.

One common winter species here, Black-capped Chickadees, are busy in the trees these days and it is common to see groups of them gathering seeds, like the one below.

Autumn is a great time for fungi too. We have seen numerous mushrooms which we sometimes can’t identify. This Tinder Polypore on a tree trunk is easy to identify though since it resembles a horse’s hoof.

I’ll close this week with a photo of a pumpkin left at the entrance to the Dunk River Trail. The sunlight filtered through the leaves and cast on the tree make an ethereal body for the pumpkin.

Have a wonderful week everyone!