In the black spruce forests

It is late afternoon  almost one week since I sent you "the spinnings". I am sleepy now although in the scheme of things it matters not. Last night I could not fall asleep until after 2:00 a.m. and I knew then, there would be no sunrise shots. Molly and I got up at about eight-thirty and while she had her morning repast I ate peanut butter and banana on toast but not until after coffee had warmed me to the over cast day. I suppose all that is an aside and may not be relevant but suffice to say I was not enthusiastically bounding off to one beach or another with my Molly. We decided instead to walk the trails and stalk spring flowers. Now Nova Scotia has us captivated with her dense black spruce forests, spotted here and there with a deciduous tree. We knew it would be a different palate than the hardwood forests of ON where once we sought the perfect shot of  Trilliums, Hepaticas, Blood- Roots, Jack-in the Pulpits and all their springtime neighbours.  What we didn’t know was the breath taking beauty of indigenous Rhododendron, of Serviceberry reaching before the spruce, of Honeysuckle so stunning it levelled me: inviting me to lie on my back looking into its delicate beauty.  Wow! What a morning at Bell Lake on the Eastern Shore.

There is one gorgeous wee flower maybe a cm across, growing amongst the moss and cranberry that I have been unable to identify. Hoping one of you can.

here it is

Rhodos

Neighbours

I am quite sure this is a type of honeysuckle although I have not seen this variety in ON. I am happy to be corrected and if so I will make sure it goes into the blog corrected.

Leather Leaf is almost through for the year

Cherry

Blue Berry

Serviceberry

In the Mists of Seven Lakes

To be part of life in the mists is a gift that is more than equal to  days splashed with brilliant sun and ever-going blue sky.  In the mists my pace is slower as I take in the softness and beauty of the morning. That beauty surrounds me, and in it I explore webs spun through the night. Years ago on Seven Acre Rd, Township of Rideau Lakes ON, I explored marvelous webs that festooned the roadside. It seems fitting now, as time has long passed, to partake of the beauty of  the webs in the mists of Seven Lakes.  I hope I am able to share some of the beauty that lifted me into the day May 17, 2018.

A short one

Spring has arrived in Nova Scotia. 

Molly and I have been on the beaches daily and we also watch the world awaken around us. Neil Downey, a staff member at Seven Lakes has introduced us to woodland flora and shown me where many flowers lie hidden from unobservant eyes. As all of you know Spring is the time … for me—the time to watch  the earliest flowers rise and warm in the sun. It is the time  to watch  buds swell, change colour, and unfurl to shade the later emergent ones like orchids. 

It occurred to me — and I told Molly so today as we drove the coastal road, that places like, Grand Desert Beach, Chezzetcook, Petpezwick, Sheet Harbour, Clam Harbour, Taylor Head, have given "strength to my bones”.  She agreed.

We met a woman at Clam Harbour this morning— home for a visit from Montreal. She said to me after  warm greetings one to the other, “Oh! I can just feel my soul getting free! Can’t you? “ “Yes. I believe I can.” I responded. “Yes, I do  believe I can.”

Here are a few beauties I shot yesterday and Molly and I are about to hit the trails now that in search of.... Thanks Neil for sharing the natural  beauty of this land.

Trailing Arbutus