July beauty

One of the environmental highlights for us this past week on Prince Edward Island was a calm day, without any wind, when the sea and sky became one. On such a day, the horizon disappears and different elements are indistinguishable.

I wonder what the cormorant sees when it looks around?

Our family went camping this past weekend, so my husband and I had the golden grand-dog for a few days. Those days included a visit to the beach at Mont Carmel. Daisy can be off-lead there as few people frequent the beach. She loves to fetch a ball out of the water.

It was a calm day and local cottagers were enjoying water sports . Paddle boards, Sea-doos, 

and a hydrofoil provided hours of entertainment for the cottagers and those watching.

Other days we walked on trails where other walkers were obvious in the distance and Daisy could run free before they approached. Unfettered, she runs ahead and stops periodically waiting for the seniors to catch up. 

We know it was a successful outing with Daisy if she is tired afterwards. A tired dog is a good dog.

Nature provided hours of entertainment this past week as the parade of wildflowers continues along the trails. Along the Confederation Trail, fireweed is resplendent in some areas. 

Queen Anne’s lace dominates in places though the two are usually not together. 

In the fields, some potato plants are in blossom already while others have some growing yet to do. 

A wheat field that borders the Confederation Trail looks to have benefitted from the rain we’ve had recently.

Along the boardwalk, the wildflowers are doing well. Yarrow 

and St. John’s wort grow beside the trail and brighten the days with their colour. 

At more than a metre high, wild roses and vetch attract bees. We stopped to watch the bees among the roses as we could hear their collective buzz.

Another interesting sight this past week was a swarm of flies we suspect were midges. They are visible in the photo below 

and a close-up is better than I thought it would be. We were lucky they weren’t biting.

I was fortunate to see a Great Blue Heron fishing in the salt marsh one day.

Another fortunate photo was the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker with a beak full of pin cherries before it entered the nest to feed its young.

Finally this week, one evening, just after dark, we passed a young fox out hunting. It was near a wheat field where the hunting is good. The fox wasn’t afraid of us when we rolled down the window to photograph it. 

Our encounters and experiences in nature continue to brighten our days and keep us moving.

Back in the saddle

It’s taken almost a year but I am back on my bike again. I am fortunate it’s an e-bike because I doubt I’d be able to ride a regular bike without pain. However, the throttle takes away the need for peddling, so I can enjoy biking again with my husband. We rode the Confederation Trail twice last week. It is the old rail bed which except for one area along the coast, goes through the centre of the island. 

The trail goes through farmland which is being harvested currently or will be in the coming weeks. Farm equipment was out in some fields, cutting hay in this case. 

Gulls were busy in the hay, not averse to leaving the shoreline behind to forage in the freshly mown fields. 

In some areas, the hay is already baled. By chance, the bale in the centre of the photo below looks like it has fireweed poking out of both sides. 

You never know what’s in a shot until you see the result.

Most fireweed is gone to seed at this point of the summer. The fuzzy seed is easily carried on the breeze and distributed everywhere.

The last section of trail we rode is newly resurfaced. We turned around at a new bridge constructed over a marsh/pond area. 

A cloudless sky was reflected in the surface of the pond, a mirror which created a rich deep blue.  

A reflection of a clump of grass 

looks almost as real turned upside down.

Riding along the trail surrounded by nature, with the wind in your face, provides a glorious sense of freedom. This month crickets add to the ambience. You can hear them through the breeze all along the trail, as if to summon autumn which is waiting among the trees.

The trail is well maintained across the island and is used by islanders and visitors alike. This cyclist is glad to be back there.

Touch of colour

It was a dry summer and many trees are showing the effects of the dry weather. Leaves are withering away on some trees making us wonder if there’ll be much fall colour this year. Regardless, the Rotary Friendship Trail was welcoming as we headed out, drawing us into the forested greens along the trail on a cool but pleasant day.

While some of the deciduous trees look spent, the conifers are vibrant and full. The shortening daylight hasn’t affected them yet, not that we can see.

Many deciduous greens are beautiful although they look muted. As we continued, shocks of autumn maple red dotted the canopy, 

lifting the eyes and us with them. Along the ground, young trees stood out among the ferns which were far from spent.

Sometimes an area looked verdant, with hardly a hint of autumn colour. Other times, around a turn, one arrived at sunlit beauty, teasing us about the weeks to come.

Some wildflowers, such as aster and goldenrod are hanging on to their blooms for another few days. They make a beautiful September garden. 

Behind some goldenrod, the colour of fireweed which has gone to seed makes an autumn scene. 

On the boardwalk by the harbour the next day, the wind was blowing as we looked out over the scene from the gazebo as we always do. 

However, the shoreline had the appearance of autumn which had developed over the previous days.

A few days later, we cycled on the Confederation Trail. We can comfortably do 16 kilometres or 10 miles now. We headed west, driving through a small community with a lovely park and farm country where cattle were our companions 

as potato fields waited for harvest. 

Autumn will continue to sprinkle her magic over the island.

 

Lots of lace

The wildflower Queen Anne’s Lace always grabs my attention. I notice it everywhere we go on Prince Edward Island this time of year. The plant has a root which resembles a carrot, hence its other name Wild Carrot but the lacy name is so much prettier. 

The bloom itself is a beauty one would want in a flower bed if it wasn’t so hard to control. Before long, the plant would fill the garden and a lawn. However, I love the sight of these tall beauties in the wild and I always photograph them.

The flowers grow out from the top of a stem in a cluster called an umbrel. 

There may be a single purple flower in the centre top of the umbrel as there is here.

Along the boardwalk by the harbour in Summerside, Queen Anne’s Lace grows among the other wildflowers.

My favourite photos however are those taken with the sea in the background.

During our recent visit to Black Marsh, Queen Anne’s Lace in one of the wildflowers which grows along the trails there.

In one area, it is an excellent companion for Fireweed which grows on the opposite side of the trail.

At the entrance to the trail, there is an area at least 15 meters long where the Queen’s flowers fill the space out to the edge of the cliff. There are hundreds of thousands of blooms. The sign warning of the edge of the cliff is redundant as long as these blooms are present blocking the way to the edge.

Before long, all blooms will be gone and the seed pods will have their own beautiful shape. 

This lace has a beauty all its own.