Monday Forest photo: June 13, 2012

3:00pm 18C sunny

A fresh day - breezy and coolish. Just perfect for a nice long walk in the woods. Most of the new wildflowers this week are in the sunny open areas in the trails, rather than on the forest floor. It's too shady there now for flowers.

It seems pretty quiet here during the day (after the spring bird frenzy) , but at night we can hear all kinds of action through our open window. I don't even want to know what all those sounds are.

Oxeye Daisy

Red Clover

Sow Thistle

Hop Clover

Hairy Vetch

Canada Anemone

Monday Forest photo: June 4, 2012

3:30pm 16C overcast

A brisk day today. Especially for June, but we've had lots of stinking hot weather already and a bit of relief is welcome sometimes. Last night we had a bear in our backyard, so I was particularly aware of noises in the forest as I walked today. I didn't think I'd see any new flowers today, just because it's been cool and rainy and I was preoccupied, but a few caught my eye, regardless.

Arctic Skipper on Prairie Ragwort

Blue Flag Iris

New England Aster

Monday Forest photo: May 29, 2012

2:00pm 33C cloudy

Wow, what a scorcher! The air is thick and thunderstorms are threatening. I hope we get lots of rain. My walk was short today because this is mad dogs and Englishmen weather and I am neither. There are still a couple more days in May, but summer is in full swing.

Orange Hawkweed

There are a few new wildflowers this week. I was particularly excited to see the Lady's Slipper. I didn't notice it last year, but it is in a unique micro habitat on a hillside beside a little seasonal spring.

Swamp Buttercup

Large Yellow Lady's Slipper 

Seneca Snakeroot

Monday Forest photo: May 21, 2012

2:30pm 29C clear

Wow. It's summer all of a sudden. Most of the spring ephemerals have packed up until next year. There's an amazing scent of honeysuckle in the woods, but I have never actually seen any there. The biting bugs are out, but all that is necessary to avoid them is to keep moving, rather than any repellant or netting. For now. My next level of protection is to take a silly-looking ballcap with a fabric flap that covers your ears and neck, and spray it with Deep Woods Off. I'll wear that with a light coloured long sleeve shirt and that will do me until it doesn't, at which point I'll switch to long sleeves, long pants and a hat with netting attached. I'll admit that when the bugs get that bad, a walk in the woods just doesn't have the same appeal as it does now.

Red Osier Dogwood 

Forget-me-not

Monday Forest photo: May 17, 2012

2:00pm 18C partly cloudy

 Finally, the leaves are out! Also, mosquitoes, but not too bad. This week had lots of new flowers and even a morel to show.

White Trillium 

Maybe I knew this at one time, but I certainly didn't remember that white trilliums turn purple as they age. I thought they were a different variety. There were quite a few of these elderly purple flowers in the woods today. It seems like there are more trilliums this year than last.

Yellow Morel

I found a single morel mushroom this year. Last year I didn't see any, so maybe in a few years I will find enough to eat.

Small-flowered Crowfoot

Wild Phlox

Wild Columbine

Wood Strawberry

Monday Forest photo: May 9, 2012

2:00pm 20C cloudy 

I love this time of year. We've finally made the shift from brown to green, but the mosquitoes aren't out yet. It's mild, but not too warm. The birds and frogs are going crazy with lust and I actually spied a couple of woodpeckers in flagrente delicto today. It seemed a rather hasty and furtive affair to tell the truth, but not my business.

The new bloom for this week is violets.

Monday Forest photo: April 30, 2012

12:00pm 14C cloudy

Well, last week I mused that the leaves might be out by this week, but I didn't account for the week of cold and windy weather we've had since then. Today was the first mild, almost normal day in a while. I'd kind of been sucked into thinking we were having a warm spring, but April was ordinary, maybe a bit coolish, and if things are ahead of where they normally are, it's mainly because of the extraordinary heat we had in March to set things in motion. Perhaps the new normal is that all bets are off.

On my walk today, I spotted the first Trillium flower of the season. I get all Ontario-patriotic just thinking about it. After all, it's the provincial flower and we were all indoctrinated as children that we must never pick them, because they will never grow back and they are very special. I never have picked one and I don't know anyone who has, though I have heard that perhaps they aren't as delicate as all that.

After a brief hiatus for weather, there were lots of Trout Lily blooms today.

Monday Forest photo: April 23, 2012

3:00pm 4C light rain

Most of the snow has gone, but we woke this morning to a very snowy day. I won't complain, because we desperately need the moisture, and a couple of days of snow and rain should help. I thought the leaves might be out by now, considering the warm weather we've had already this year, but only the poplars and some shrubs have actual leaves so far. As it turns out, it's probably for the best. Maybe next week.

Monday Forest photo: April 16, 2012

Scarlet Cup mushroom

Monday Forest photo: April 9, 2012

1:00pm 10C overcast

It's an ordinary April day for once. Breezy and threatening rain and not too warm or cold. Things are happening here in Monday Forest, even though you have to look closely still. The wild leeks are up and growing like crazy everywhere, and there are lots of little miscellaneous green things popping up. We're two weeks ahead of last year, but I guess that's no surprise after the incredibly warm March.

Trout Lilies are up.

I found lots of unopened Round Leaf Hepatica. Last year, there didn't seem to be so many, only scattered individuals, rather than the patch of a dozen or so I saw today.

Monday Forest photo: April 2, 2012

4:00pm 10C clear

Ahhh spring.

The wild leeks are up! This is the season of munching on leek leaves while walking. I come back every day with garlic breath.

Monday Forest photo: March 26, 2012

3:40pm -1C clear

Well, Mother Nature does have a way of bringing one back down to earth pretty severely. After last week's glorious summer weather, we're back to below seasonal temperatures accompanied by a strong north wind. I've got the waaaay early garlic and asparagus all mulched and protected from marauding chickens (they can't resist scratching in straw) so hopefully they will survive their optimistic foray into early spring.

This poor toad was on the trail a few days ago when the temperature was up in the twenties. He was so still I thought he was dead, but I didn't do a full investigation to be sure.

Monday Forest photo: March 19, 2012

11:00am 18C sunny

 So sorry about the missing month of Monday Forest. I did take pictures, and I'll probably post them for continuity's sake sometime. We've gone from winter to summer and it isn't even officially spring until tomorrow. I read in the paper that some expert is calling this stretch of hot weather (mid twenties in March!) a 1 in a 1000 year event. Yesterday, the record high temperature was broken by 9 degrees C and there's warmer for later on this week. In fact, the forecast low for Wednesday night is higher than the previous record high. This weather is impossible not to enjoy at this time of year (well, any time of year) but it's a little like how I imagine it feels to live the high life on stolen loot. In this case, we've stolen our kids' climate.

The forest floor is coming to life even though only yesterday there was still snow covering more than half of it. I don't know what this hairy-tongued thing is.

For comparison, this picture was taken last week, when the temperature got up to a whopping 12C. This is what kids in Canada do - on the first nice day they put on shorts, find a patch of bare ground and skype with their friends on their mom's laptop. With chickens. Just like when I was a kid. Except for the skype and laptop and chickens. More like transistor radio and book, but still.

Monday Forest photo: February 13, 2012

12:00pm 1C sunny

Today was another beautiful sunny day. In spite of the mild temperatures we've had, we've somehow been fortunate enough to keep our snow and at least the appearance of winter. You don't have to travel far from here to run right out of snow. It's a rather dramatic demonstration of the effect of a very modest increase in temperature. 

Oh, and Meg is hiding in the picture this week.

We've had some spectacularly clear skies recently.

Monday Forest photo: February 6, 2012

2:00pm 5C sunny

 Oh February sun, you are a tease. You touch my face with your warm rays, but we both know it won't last. Today was an exercise in living in the moment. The pleasure of the fine weather was tempered by hearing on the radio later that the temperature was a record high for the day. Sigh.

The pond was in fine shape for a skate before it warmed up above freezing this morning.

The chickens enjoyed the sun, but were highly suspicious of the snow. A couple of them did a hop, skip and jump (with flapping) to roost on a log closer to the house, but mostly, they wait for spring.