A walk with friends

The Heritage Roads of Prince Edward Island were cut into the red soil at least a century ago. The Millman Road in the centre of the island is one such road which we visit occasionally to take in the beauty of the season.

We walked that road this past week with some friends who are on the island visiting family.

The Millman Road is in a part of the island which has rolling hills. The old road doesn’t have any homesteads these days but the fields are still planted in rotation every year. This undulating field of corn is just sprouted and within three months stalks of corn will be taller than we are. 

As we walked, the wind in the trees provided music to our ears. That wind kept the mosquitoes at bay so days with a breeze are great days to explore such areas. Birds sang in the trees and while it was hard to see them high in the canopy, sometimes one is lucky enough to see one of the songsters, like this Black-capped Chickadee.

As we turned around to walk back, the fields around the Southwest River stretched before us. 

The ditches along the road were full of blooms, among them the showy lupins which have beautiful variation in colour in that area. 

I am uncertain as to identity of the tall plant with the delicate pink blooms growing with the lupins. 

We continued on to the park at Cabot Beach where we had a leisurely lunch with our friends. However, it rained before we could explore the beach together. We will get together again later this week.

Finally today, I want to introduce you to one of our animal friends along the boardwalk. We first saw this squirrel late last autumn when it was eating at one of the bird feeders. It had the shortest tail we had ever seen on a Red Squirrel, so we called it Bob. 

Over the next several months, we saw Bob regularly. Then it vanished and we feared Bob had fallen victim to a predator.

                                                      Unlike Bob, this squirrel has a normal tail.

Much to our surprise, last month, a squirrel with an unusual tail appeared on another section of the boardwalk. We suspect it is Bob, with a lengthened tail. However, the tip of its tail has grown fur which looks different from other squirrels. Could this be Bob?

We like to think so!

The fields of Prince Edward Island

Cycling along the Confederation Trail, my husband and I always notice the fields along the way. Potato fields are a common sight in a province which grows 25% of Canada’s potatoes. 

This year has been a banner year for potato growth since we had rain every two or three days during July. While it is drier this month, the crop is mature and more resistant to dry weather when the plants cover the soil, able to reduce evaporation. 

Similarly, the corn grown for silage looks like a bumper crop this year too.

Recently, we spotted something which was new to us on the fields near Miscouche, an area we frequent on our bike rides from home. 

The fields were white on both sides of the trail and in a field across the highway nearby. It looked as if the seeds had been sown all over the fields rather than in rows. Later we identified the crop as buckwheat. 

A single bloom might not have been all that impressive but the billions of the white blossoms over such a large area were stunning. 

Seen from our vantage point, looking through the wildflowers bordering the trail, the setting was picture perfect.

You never know what awaits in an area you know well.