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 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: July 18, 2011

1:30pm 29C cloudy 

A wicked wind storm blew through last night, but there wasn't much damage in the forest this time. I thought for sure there would be trees down, but I guess the trees are pruned of their weak branches by previous storms. It's warm and sticky today, but nothing like yesterday.

A beetle, a bee and an inchworm walk into a bar...

There are some naturalized brown-eyed susans around our property, which are apparently host to all sorts of creatures. 

Monday forest photo: May 24, 2011

9:00am 20C cloudy

 No, I didn't get raptured or even hauled off by a swarm of mosquitoes. My camera was galivanting around Toronto yesterday, so not available for a Monday forest photo. I think this week looks like last week, except someone took a crayon and added more green.

There are lots of violets everywhere, even some yellow ones.

There's a patch of wild columbine with these beautiful ornate flowers.

I think this is what is called wild lily-of-the-valley. I was a lot more sure of that before I tried to identify the next one, which I think is star flowered Solomon's seal, also known as wild lily-of-the-valley. I guess this is the limitation of using common names.