Westminster Ponds Walk

Looks inviting, yes?
If only the entire trail was on the boardwalk,
but the boardwalk only exists to help us cross the
very boggy areas. The rest of the trail was mud, mud and
more mud. My wellies would have done a better job. As it was
I held onto tree limbs and bushes to skirt the worst of the mud and
puddles, plus we each used a branch as a walking stick. Part way in
and I was ready to turn around as it was slow going - I couldn't even take
any pictures as I needed both hands, feet and walking stick to keep me
from tumbling headfirst into the muck. The photos shown here are after we
got through the worst of the mud. However, we weren't finished with natural
obstacles yet!

Not too bad eh? You should have seen my pant legs!

The trailblazer suffered a bit more from the muck than I did.

A lot of areas that are usually dry were still under water from the
winter runoff and the days of rain we've had.

Looking into the water on one of the boardwalks.

There are certain plants that grow here that are right at home in
swampy conditions. 

They make excellent photography subjects.

And don't you just love the vibrant green colour?
Life is coming back to Westminster Ponds!

Makes me think of the paintings by Georgia O'Keefe!

We were almost finished one long loop of the trail when we met up with
flood conditions which were impassable. The pond in some areas has flooded
the trail and there was no way to get around it. Michael tried putting in a couple of logs and fell in trying to cross over. He kept going anyways and discovered that further on there were more flooded areas.  So we had to turn back and find an alternate way back to our starting point and our CAR!
If ONLY we were wearing rubber boots!!

These trees were on the opposite side of the trail from the pond and were under a foot or two of water. I stood on a log to get this picture.

We did find another way through and ended up walking down Wellington Rd. to where we'd parked. Along the way I encountered these brilliant blue flowers blooming in profusion. I don't know their real name - my mom used to call them Crazies - they grew wild in our lawn just after the Snowdrops were finished blooming.

Aren't they gorgeous?