Back to Walking

Words cannot express my happy feelings for being back in Kilally Meadows, my home away from home. I walked for a couple hours and my toes caused me no grief.

I received as a birthday gift this year the book called "The Hidden Life of Trees" and it is fabulous. If you are a lover of forests, as I am, you should read this book. It is an amazing read and the research will help you understand that trees live in very social communities and are much better at supporting each other and communicating with each other than we are. 

Anyhoo...there is still a lot going on in the forest at this time of year. We've had cold weather and hot weather and everything in between. Except for rain - we really need more of that! I went on a sunny day that was around 18c and it was perfect.

          So inviting isn't it?

I love fungi! Fungi play a huge role in the lives of trees in the forest.

I've always loved the way fallen branches create works of forest art.

Look at these sweet little seed fluffies. (definitely a scientific term!)

Still lots of colour to be found.

And lots of wildflowers still blooming brightly!

The last of the phlox. 

I chased this Clouded Sulpher butterfly around til it settled long enough for a photo. 

Beautiful!

This is the ugly part of things - invasive species.  Mostly we should leave forests alone.

But sometimes certain invasive species try to take over and kill the whole forest and then

man must step in to try and stem the flow.

In this case it is the European Buckthorn population that has been taking over.

For some reason these milkweed pods below remind me of 

Heckle and Jeckle :)

I'm dating myself! 

Whatever flowers these were is a mystery that will

have to wait until next spring.

Two very fat ducks - they better stay hidden until after Thanksgiving!

.....this weekend in Canada.

A clothesline of sumac leaves - such glorious colours.

And that's it for this week's walk. Hopefully I will get to Kilally Meadows again soon; possibly tomorrow. Today is volleyball - I played a couple hours on Tuesday and am happy to report that my fingers held up quite well :)  And yesterday we had the first rain in weeks so I took the opportunity to work on a couple of soapstone carvings.

I LOVE autumn!

Racking up the Miles

It was a weekend of walking! I walked and I walked. And happily the weather cooperated. On Saturday we hiked through Killaly Meadows- it was a bit of a slow hike, more like a stroll, but enjoyable nonetheless. The sun was shining and we walked in our shirt sleeves. You can't beat that. We're in that wonderful window of time between snow/sleet/wind/rain and.......................................

BUG SEASON!!

I'm still in pain but not as bad as before. The thing is you have to keep stretching even when you're feeling better. Lesson learned. It's hard to see but there are thousands of blue flowers (my mom called them crazies) sprinkled through the grass and the trees and through the trees you can glimpse the river.

I was trying to get a picture of the colourful red sumac contrasting with the spindly trees and blue sky without any people in the shot (while walking at the same time) but it didn't quite work out - I could edit the guy out but then most of the sumac would be gone.  Maybe I'll try it.

Not sure why but a lot of trees in this area are missing most of their bark - it makes for cool pictures but I'm a bit concerned!

Later - Sunday's hike - I know you can't wait!!