Welcome June!

This past week was a busy one as we cleaned windows inside and out, started work in the garden and visited the garden centre. Fewer walks were the consequence but the days we walked were exceptional. We witnessed the beauty of the leaves opening over a few days and the new green of late spring took hold.

This was the scene along a trail in the Rotary Friendship Park in Summerside on last Friday, May 30.

On Monday, May 26, this was the same scene. 

The area looked bare in comparison on Wednesday, May 21st.

Witnessing the change in the leaves over nine days has been a privilege as the new green of nature awakens for another growing season.

On the forest floor, a sighting of a Painted Trillium is a rare treat. I have only ever seen two others in my years on the island.

Also on the forest floor, thousands of Star Flowers are blooming between tufts of grass. 

Canada Mayflower is beginning to bloom and will look beautiful when the buds are all open. 

False Solomon’s Seal may bloom this coming week.

Early last week, Serviceberry shrubs were in full bloom in the understory of the forest. The blooms may not have survived the high winds of this past weekend. We shall see later this week. 

A Hairy Woodpecker appeared in a tree along a trail one day, and I watched with interest, wondering if the hole was the entrance to Woody’s nest.

Male Mallards are spending time alone these days as the females are nesting.

Along the boardwalk, new Red Squirrels are out and about, not afraid to approach people, like their parents before them.

Finally, we were fortunate this past weekend the torrential rain of Saturday and the high winds of Sunday didn’t happen on the same day.

On Sunday, the white caps on the muddy sea indicate high winds.

Enjoy the first week of June!

The new green of spring

The leaves are on the trees now, having opened here in the Maritimes this past week. We had two days with temperatures of 30 degrees C and high winds which were disastrous for wildfires in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. We didn’t have much rain this spring and the forests were full of downed trees from Fiona last fall, tinder ready. Much of Canada has wildfires raging however. It is easy to get lost in the tragedies. In the east, a forecasted week of wet, cold weather will help with the fires.

Meanwhile, this past week, my husband and I enjoyed the burgeoning spring which has long been posted about by fellow bloggers throughout the Northern Hemisphere. We are slow of leaf here is Eastern Canada. However, enjoying every minute possible is a way to lift one’s thoughts beyond the tragedies, environmental and otherwise which abound today.

We continue to walk every day, if not on the boardwalk 

or the Rotary Friendship Park, we head further afield for a walk and a picnic such as recent excursions to Cavendish, Bonshaw, Cape Egmont and Tignish Shores.

Plants of the forest floor are thriving now, as green takes over on multiple levels in the forest. 

Tiny beauties such as starflower abound 

as do wild strawberry blooms.

A painted trillium was a wonderful surprise this week, one of two varieties which grow on the island.

The blossoms on trees are brief but glorious. They cause us pause, to take in the delicate buds and blooms, 

the subtle colours, the pistils and stamens, 

ensuring fruit for another harvest. 

Meanwhile, the animals go about their lives, the migratory birds having returned already. Some stop briefly while others, like the Great Blue Heron, 

grace the landscape for the warmer months.

Spring is brief here, but welcome, enjoyed and appreciated. Nature has adapted to the short bounty of suitable conditions and so have we. 

As I write this on Sunday to post Monday, it is windy, raining and feels like 3 degrees Celsius. We will don our winter clothes and walk between the drops amid the new green of spring.

To the Appalachian Trail

Look up! 

 

The back road to the woodland trails of Dromore in eastern Prince Edward Island was lined with tall trees. My husband and I were headed to the island part of the International Appalachian Trail, IAT. The road was rough and we decided to walk rather than take the car. It allowed us also to walk through a natural wonder before we even arrived at the trail.

 

Part of the road was lined with a stand of tall pines, such an unusual sight. 

 

The opposite side of the road had deciduous trees. Someone worked at planting these pines.

Listen!

The woods were alive.

We stopped often to listen in nature's aviary and to look. Our untrained eyes could not discern many birds in the tall trees. However, not even the flies, tormenting as they were, could detract from the sights and sounds of that road.

The old road was lined with dandelion and cabbage white butterflies fed on the yellow beauties. 

 

As we walked, the whites rose from their feeding, so on occasion, dozens of the little butterflies fluttered around us.

 

The road was a butterfly conservatory as well as an aviary.

On the Birding Loop of the IAT, we focused on natural features we had never seen before. This Shining Club moss was an unusual one, more like a small shrub. 

 

Painted Trilliums were scattered over the forest floor, a pretty distraction on the trail.

 

Lung lichen looks like a bunch of leaves stuck to a tree trunk until you notice these "leaves" don't have any veins. 

 

The holes at the base of tree trunks were intriguing. 

 

We were not brave enough to look inside any of them however.

 

 Who would want to disturb a skunk?

 

We walked back to the car at a fast pace to go to the beach for lunch. However, this walk was one of our favourite nature walks ever.