Mid-summer’s Day and we were out in the sun, dripping wet searching for birds (successfully) when we passed this garden along Cemetery Lane. Can’t get more high summer than this.
Three years ago a group of Arboretum volunteers created the “Canada 150 Trail” to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the creation of Canada.Quite by chance it was found this year that the Birch Alley that forms part of the trail is directly oriented towards the setting sun for the few days around mid-summer’s day, the Summer Equinox.
Absolutely NO adjustments to the colour saturation was made in preparing these photographs – these colours are what our eyes saw. Well, what oour eyes saw through the clouds of ravenous mosquitoes, that is ;)
For the first 16 or so years we were in Canada we would rent Chalet Hidden at Kenauk for a few lakeside days of peace, quiet and trout fishing in early September. It was, probably still is, a magical place and we only stopped going because we felt it was best to leave with the best memories intact … though maybe one day (if we save up enough) we will return. half the land is now owned by the Nature Conservancy of Canada while the vacationing is in the hands of a private company that markets itself to very rich people.
Anyway, in front of the cabin was a stream running from a waterfall into the big lake – early one misty morning I wandered along the peninsula this juncture made and looking back saw the line of trees holding separate the mist on the lake with clear air over the stream to the right. Always a favourite picture. Taking canoes out on the lake to fish or to watch beavers at work and listen to Loons calling are memories to hold on to.
Click here to see a “movie” of the lakeside where this image was taken and inside the cabin
Click here to get a video taster of Kenauk as a whole – it’s about two hours from home
Took a moderately early stroll to the Arboretum to see what the low, warm light could do.
A House Wren perched just beyond an Eastern Kingbird on the Arboretum Branchery
Looking back towards Chalet Pruche from part way down Birch Alley on the Canada 150 Trail. It was good to be back in the arboretum again after its long closure – even better that the sun shone and only members can access the trails just now so we almost have the whole forest to ourselves.
21 species of birds.
A garden resident this summer where we have several tall trees from which it can sally after passing food. Great Crested Flycatchers are sit-and-wait predators, sallying from high perches (usually near the tops of trees) after large insects, returning to the same or a nearby perch. Their clear, rising reep calls are a very common sound in summer.
There has been a short hiatus in the garden between the spring flowers, mostly shades of blue some yellow, and the early summer flowering. One of the first is this beautiful white Iris sibirica. A very elegant flower.
This Rhododendron was hidden in a very shady corner of the garden when we moved here in 1998 and was not “doing” at all well. Rhododendrons can handle shade but do like a bit of sunshine. However, in recent years it has decided that as the environment it finds itself in is not going to improve it had better put some effort into making the best of what it has got by itself. This June it really doing rather well – colour in that corner is just what was needed … but oh, what a time we had to wait.
Almost four years ago we spent a couple of weeks in one of the remoter parts of the west coast of Scotland (than which there is no finer) with good friends. An hour or two’s walk up a trail into the hills from where we were staying there was a well maintained bothy where we found shelter from the wind in order to take a bite of lunch. This view from the window of the bothy has become a firm favourite of mine and is the permanent banner on my other website (sparroworks.ca) and my Facebook page.. Shame about the plastic bottle – that came with the property ;)
Good memories.
