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Showing posts with label bees. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bees. Show all posts

Wednesday, 13 July 2022

Wildflowers of the island

While I enjoy flower gardens, I enjoy especially the natural gardens of wildflowers which Mother Nature produces every year. She is a clever one too since she orchestrates a succession of beauties, as some go to seed, other blooms take their place.


Now the lilacs and rockets of the roadsides and pathways are gone to seed. The daisies which spend some of their blooming time with those two, 





now commune with other blooms.The variety is lovely. 


Vetch, in its pink/purple beauty attracts bees 





as do the wild roses which are also in abundance. 




Red Clover grows tall, reaching for the sun in a crowded field, as does St. John’s Wort.





Numerous Broadleaf Meadowsweet blossoms line pathways now 





as Goats Beard claims a spot along an embankment. 





Some are gone to seed.





A close look on a sandy trail reveals Red Sand Spurrey, a tiny bloom about the size of a baby’s little fingernail.





It looks like a succulent and is easy to miss although it is worth one’s time. A tiny blossom on a vine among the shrubs, is easy to miss too. Bittersweet Nightshade looks delicate but its purple blooms with yellow centres cause one to pause and admire them. 





Blue Flag Iris always catches my eye along a trail. 





One works hard in a garden to grow blooms half so pretty. Buttercups, familiar blooms of our childhood, are favourites of the ants.





Tall Meadow Rue is almost waist high among the shrubs 





and Spreading Dogbane is a shrub with tiny bells.





Along the shoreline at Rice Point, some familiar blooms along with Bedstraw and Large Hop Clover almost hide the fence along a property line.





Wildflowers are so much prettier than fences.    


Monday, 28 June 2021

Leave it to the bees

Each section of the Confederation Trail we cycle has items of interest, like on our recent ride from Mount Stewart to Morell in eastern Prince Edward Island. With the Hillsborough River in the distance, you travel past fields of crops and hay, rivers and conservation areas. Curiosity alone compelled us to cycle round that next turn.





Stopping at this field, a type we hadn’t seen before, we speculated about what was happening there and on similar ones in the area. 




Then we saw the bee hives.





Of course! Wild blueberry fields managed by growers.  


Every year this time, wild blueberry growers rent bees/hives to ensure the fertilization of the blueberry blossoms. The honey bees are enlisted to assist island bees at the work. 





The berry blooms have a two week window and there’s lots of pollination to do in that short time.


With enough rain, there should be a good crop of the deep blue berries this year. Yummy!



Wednesday, 2 September 2020

Golden sunshine

Each bloom is perfect,

Tiny rays reaching from a golden centre.




A bouquet on a stem named goldenrod,

The late summer wildflower which brightens our day.





Despite the weather, the yellow glory remains,

Dispelling the foggy gloom. 

It lifts the spirits of those who pass

Through the gallery.





The sunny blooms shine their best

Along the woodland paths or shoreline.





Bees come to visit, sweet nectar will become honey

And pollen spreads from bloom to bloom. 





Goldenrod will shine again next year.