Exploring Prince Edward Island

Bedeque Bay was featured this past week as we walked the boardwalk in Summerside. One day, a sailboat caught our attention with the layers of colour and pattern in the setting. The human element looked tiny against the natural elements. 

On a particularly windy day, six kite surfers played across the Bay near the lighthouse. It looks like fun but I cannot ever imagination wanting to try it, at any age. They are courageous people!

Our friend, Helen, is in Prince Edward Island visiting her son and his family for several weeks. Helen is from Australia and made the long journey on her own this year as her husband, Frank, was unable to travel. We missed him.

Helen introduced us to Hyde Pond last week, an area we were unfamiliar with but will visit again. 

The walk along the trail is a beautiful one any time of year and one can imagine a walk there in the autumn colour. We will find out.

Nearby, Canada Geese and Mallards, including young goslings and molting birds, were safe from predators in the fenced area of a settling pond. 

That day, Helen provided a delicious lunch which we ate across from Charlottetown, overlooking the harbour and the city from Rice Point. A cruise ship had delivered tourists that day, as is common this time of year. 

I always enjoy the view of the Hillsborough Bridge across the Harbour.

My husband and I were biking last week as well and took our first picnic lunch with us on bike. We stopped at a covered picnic table about 13 kilometres from home, in a marshland area which has a pond if we’ve had enough rain. The water level in the pond was the highest we’d ever seen. We had heavy rain numerous times in spring.

Though the wind was the predominant sound, Green Frogs called from around the pond, hidden by the vegetation. The chorus was loud and almost continuous, as if the amphibians didn’t stop to breathe. Nature’s chorus was in fine voice in the wilds of Prince Edward Island.

We had lunch and enjoyed the serenade as we watched Tree Swallows dart through the air catching theirs. Red-winged Blackbirds called out as they flew to nearby trees, surveying the scene.

After lunch, we stood on the bridge over the pond and watched as Swallows picked insects from the surface of the water, swooping down, picking up an insect and continuing on their way. The birds barely slowed as they snatched their prey from the water. A Water Strider didn’t have a chance against those stealthy birds.

Twice during our time there, Great Blue Herons flew over. We have seen them feeding in the pond on previous occasions. From the tiny Swallows to the huge Herons, avians enjoy the area. 

In the ditches along the Trail, Blue Flag Irises were in abundance. 

Similarly, Daisies filled the edges of the Trail.

Along the more shallow edges of the pond, Water Arum, with its single white petal, waded in the water.

The wind in the trees, the call of the frogs, the blooms, the birds enjoying the habitat, made the experience priceless. The world and all its troubles didn’t exist for a few precious moments.

On the way home, we stopped to take in the verdure. 

Along the trail in places, Dame’s Rockets adorn the way and are worth a closer look too.

Also lupins are still blooming along the roads and trails. They are such a treat this time of year.

At home, the first peony is blooming. Yay!

P.S.

On the world stage, the news is bleak. We escape into nature most days which helps distract us. One feels helpless regarding the world situation so we work to make our little part of the world better. There is always a way to help others in need even in one’s own area. Simply giving a compliment can brighten someone’s day. A smile is a kindness which doesn’t have a price tag.

As our daughter says to the children, “Be kind. You don’t know what someone is going through.”

Blooms and critters

This past week was a busy one with activities with our grandchildren and having the golden grand-dog overnight. We did manage a walk most days however, when the weather permitted. We have had cold winds and a great deal of rain.

Along the trails now, Mountain Ash 

and High Bush Cranberry are in bloom. 

Gone are the apple blossoms but people can enjoy a succession of blooms along trails and pathway over the weeks of late spring.

Prince Edward Island is known for its potatoes and planting is well underway now. The fields await the first eruption in the red soil with the potential of another bumper crop of the stem tubers.

One morning this past week, as we readied for the boardwalk, a fox and her two kits played across the street. My husband managed a photo of the mother through the window, but the kits played in the tall grass and were impossible to photograph.

Meanwhile, we walked the Confederation Trail with Daisy, the golden grand-dog, in an area where we could watch for other people. When nobody was around, we let her off the lead to run along the trail. She runs so far ahead and stops to wait for the two seniors behind her. 

Farm animals were out in the fields this past week. A farm with three horses is near the Confederation Trail where we took Daisy. This young pony didn’t mind the barking dog as it grazed in the farmyard.

Cattle were out grazing or relaxing one afternoon in another field. There were a number of additions to this herd this spring.

The same was true for this small herd of sheep another day. Lambs enjoyed grazing along a hill by the farmhouse.

It is lupin time again and the roads and trails are lined with the beauties for a few weeks. The whites, pinks, purples and mixes of colour provide a flash of colour as one drives by. It is so much better to walk past them.

My friend Lucy’s garden is beautiful again this year and I took some photos of some of her blooming beauties last week. My favourite photo was of these irises.

Lucy and I went to a birding class this past weekend along a trail in the National Park at Cavendish. We saw some familiar birds, including Bald Eagles, Osprey, Cedar Waxwings, Great Blue Herons and Song Sparrows. I was also thrilled to see Red-eyed Vireos, 

Chestnut-Sided Warbler

and an Eastern Kingbird.

It is always fun to be around a group of people with the same interests!

We enjoyed lunch with our family yesterday at our house. We have a wall in our utility room where we measure the kids every year and record their heights. We measured their grandfather and me last year too. While the kids each grew appreciably this past year, their grandfather and I shrank, though at a slower rate than the kids grew…at least.

We can rejoice in having lived long enough to experience the life which led to this loss of height and enjoy life at a new altitude!

Have a great week!

In the green

Last week was a windy one and the open areas along the boardwalk were cold enough to require a jacket. Among the trees on the trails of the Rotary Park in Summerside was quite lovely though, as was the River Trail in Tyne Valley. We had a picnic in Tyne Valley, about a thirty minute drive from home. We also took our first bike ride last week.

The trails through the forest in the Rotary Park are glowing with new green.

The leaves overhead are also open now and spread adoringly before the sun which they worship for the next several months.

Along the boardwalk, nesting Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers are sometimes visible as an adult pokes its beak through the hole in the tree. 

On the River Trail, evidence of Sapsuckers abounds and we heard numerous woodpeckers as we walked the trail. I spotted a male and female in the same tree.

Two apple trees among some huge pines on the Rotary Trail are in full bloom.

The blossoms were abuzz with huge bees flitting among the blooms.

Along the River Trail, apple blossoms were numerous too.

At one location, near the beginning of the trail, petals randomly covered the soil, leaving white speckles on the red sand.

In some areas of the River Trail, the plants almost created a tunnel, except for a few beams of light which managed to break through the leaf cover on a windy day. 

The river in Tyne Valley flows gently along, not in a rush to get anywhere most days. In this area by a bridge, the water and reflection resemble a watercolour painting.

Later in the week, smoke from the fires in western Canada joined the fog in Bedeque Bay. The lighthouse across the bay couldn’t distinguish between the two. 

We had heavy rain this past week on several occasions. How I wish we could share the rain with western Canada. So many people are out of their homes in northern Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Rain is urgently needed.

The last photo of the day is a Mourning Dove looking down at the world. I understand that look.

Finally, this past week, while walking the boardwalk, we chatted with a gentleman about the beauty of the day and the pleasant surroundings. He was so pleased to be there, unassisted, at 92 years old, enjoying the setting and the day. We were thrilled for him!

Enjoy your day!

  

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!