Reaching for the sun

They reach for the sun along the pathways and trails, in the meadows, around rivers and ponds and along the seashore, anywhere they can get a root hold. A variety of colours, they give their best to creation, from seeds to plants, blooms, pollen and eggs. They colour our paths and brighten our days.

Wildflowers don’t need human prompting, they manage on their own just fine. Seeds, carried on the wind, by birds or other animals, sprout and reach into the soil. Before long, voilà! The leaves and showy blooms are reaching for the sun again.

Sometimes they stick with their own kind. 

What looks like one bloom per plant, such as bunchberry, 

or numerous clone-like blooms like yarrow are worth a look.

Various colours catch the eye, such as the yellow of St. John’s wort with the tiny stripes on its buds which look to be painted there.

The pink and white of bindweed is always a nice surprise as it climbs its way up and around shrubs. This may please onlookers but not the plant it climbs. 

One notices a white plant among the bushes but the details of this male Tall Meadow rue with the lemon anthers and white stamens are beautiful on closer look.

Blue Flag iris is always a nice addition to the banks of a wetland.

Even seed heads, such as this one of Yellow Goat’s beard, which resembles dandelion seeds, makes us stop for a look.

Pinks and white of Dame’s rockets fill the ditches and pathways. The natural beauty of the wild roses, rockets and clover along this section of trail by the sea is a seasonal treat.

And the most spectacular of all is the riot of colour when a variety of wildflowers share a space such as here

or here,

or here.

Mother Nature is an excellent gardener.

Wild and wonderful

The trails this time of year are bordered with wildflowers which always catch my eye. As the weeks go by, the succession of plants makes any trail look new. I always stop and take in the wild beauty along the way which makes any walk slower. However, these moments of beauty give even the most familiar places, an element of surprise and wonder.

Part of the parking lot near the boardwalk has a natural border of Spreading Dogbane now. It is such a welcoming sight.

St. John’s Wort is blooming along the trails now 

and Ox-eye Daisies are always appealing.

Queen Ann’s Lace is beginning its tenure 

as well as wild roses.

Bindweed always surprises me with its pretty bloom but I wouldn’t want it in my garden. It is an invasive species and is notoriously difficult to eliminate.

The areas with combinations of wild beauty competing for position along a trail are among my favourite places.

Vetch and purple clover join many wild floral scenes. 

There are over two months of this wild beauty left along the trails. I look forward to it!

Along the boardwalk

It amazes me every year how the vegetation along the boardwalk goes from winter browns and greys to lush green in a matter of a few weeks. Along the boardwalk now, the July wildflowers fill every centimetre of space on both sides of the trail.

St. John’s Wort,

bindweed, 

vetch,

to name just a few, are at their peak now, soon to make room for the August wild ones.

Where wildflowers are not present, tall grasses, some two meters high, dwarf the average walker with their impressive size.

Along the stream, is just a few weeks, the bulrushes have grown rapidly, filling the banks of the stream and the salt water marsh.

Molting ducks hide among the growth as the blackbirds continue to fend off the ravens from their young.

Nature, which was asleep for so long, has a few months to grow for this year and is taking full advantage of the heat, every raindrop and ray of sunlight. We who are her witnesses are in awe of her.