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Friday 22 July 2016

To the Dunes

The red road to the beach is etched into the landscape and

 

the Gulf of St Lawrence is visible in the distance as we make our way down the hill. Along the road from home, fields of crops, such as canola, dot the landscape.

 


Looking out over this part of Prince Edward Island, there is new mown hay in the nearby field, while in the distance, the hay has been baled.

 

It is sunny and hot, with the east coast breeze as a perfect air conditioner. Georgie, the golden retriever is glad to be out of the car to check out the area.

 

The wildflowers are abundant along the road to the beach. One white flower is the wild carrot, also known as Queen Ann's lace or bird's nest. 

 

As we approach the dunes, the most obvious flowers are the lupins. 

 

They are throughout the countryside this time of year, many having already gone to seed. The pink and red blooms are a treat for the eyes, brighter than the traditional purples.

 

Marram grass covers the dunes and keeps the sand in place.

 

The grass has an underground network of stems called rhizomes, from which the roots emanate. 

 

This network is destroyed when people walk over it. The sign is an important reminder to stay off the grass.

 

As I head towards the beach, I am filled with anticipation. The best is yet to come!

18 comments:

DJan said...

Yes! Just beautiful summertime pictures. Thank you for sharing them, and I'm looking forward to the beach myself. :-)

Debra She Who Seeks said...

PEI's red soil is so unique in all of Canada!

ADRIAN said...

It looks fantastic and the hay is bailed.

Joanne Noragon said...

Beautiful, beautiful flowers. I once told my travelling companion that canola actually is rape seed. Quite the argument until we arrived at our destination and she looked it up. Before the days of smart phones.

Elephant's Child said...

How very, very lovely.
In this part of the world lupins are cherished additions to the garden. And expensive too. I love to think of them joining the volunteer plant category.
And I notice that the hay bales are round. Here we still have a dichotomy. Some are round, some are rectangular.

Marie Smith said...

My favourite place to be is on a beach! Getting there is half the fun sometimes.

Marie Smith said...

The red soil can ruin clothing etc. too, but, it's ours to enjoy!

Marie Smith said...

It is!

Marie Smith said...

Canola is one of the rotation crops here.

I just planted some rape seed to grow the greens for eating. Newfoundlanders love turnip greens and rape seed is as close to them as we can grow here.

Marie Smith said...

Most of the bales I see here are round.

Lupins are everywhere here, in ditches or fields like any other wildflower. They spread so easily, I imagine they spread from old farmsteads. I love the look of them.

Anvilcloud said...

Sadly, we are not in Lupine country here.

Also around here, we are getting a lot of noxious Wild Parsnip mixing in with Queen Anne. It's yellow but a similar shape.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful photos and everything looks so healthy.

David M. Gascoigne, said...

Lovely images. It has been many years since I visited PEI - makes me want to go back there.

Marie Smith said...

Sad not to have lupins. There are lots of them in Newfoundland as well.

Marie Smith said...

It is a beautiful place!

Marie Smith said...

There's always room for another visitor.

Angela said...

I really like Queen Ann's lace. We were in Iowa last week and what a pleasure to see that growing wild in the ditches on the side of the roads along with other wild flowers. We do not have much for wild flowers along the roads here in North Dakota. Lupine I have never seen growing wild, it's beautiful! Great post, thank you for sharing.

Marie Smith said...

You are welcome, Angela. Love those lupins!