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: October 10, 2011

3:30 pm 23C cloudy

Another glorious day. There won't be too many of these warm, dry days yet this year, so they are truly appreciated. On my walks these last few warm days, I've noticed that snakes, frogs, toads and insects are hanging out on the paths soaking up the sun. I managed to photograph a couple of insects, but the others skedaddled at my (very noisy) approach. All the dry leaves on the ground equal no sneaking up on anything in the woods.