Scenes from the Park

Today, I am dropping Monday's scenes from the park. They were all taken from near the bench where we were sitting. You will recognize some of the sights, like that tree near the dock and the burnished bushes. Other than that, I don't think my usually spellbinding narrative is necessary. I know that you love me to go on and on, but I am afraid that I feel compelled to disappoint you today. :)

Flooding and Epaulets

Monday was another glorious day after a fine Sunday. We headed to the main bridge bright and early, or at least before 9:00, to try to capture good light for Sue's spring picture as requested by her group. She already has the winter photo, and will return later for summer and autumn photos. She attempts to stand in the same spot and capture the same composition in each season.

We were hoping for both clouds and that early flush of green in the treetops. Sadly, we were disappointed on both counts, so Sue used a photo from last week, which did have pretty clouds. We wonder when the green will appear.

To compensate our poor souls for such an early excursion, we grabbed Timmie's coffees and headed to the park. Some flooding remains, which prevented much walking, so we found a bench fairly near the river's edge and enjoyed both the delicious coffee and the warm, wonderful weather that has since become windy, cool and rainy.

The river was calm and offering reflections from across the way. The house/cottage sits on the edge of the water at the moment, but there will be lawn between the two in summer. What a spot!

As we sat, along came a redwing blackbird to taunt and tease. It was really too far off for a proper photo, but one tries because one is not frequently granted such an opportunity. In point of fact, this was really my first photo of this species, so I am pleased regardless, and it was pleasant to see it that close.

The saucy bird moved farther away, preventing me from capturing those fabulous epaulets, but I still like the shot well enough.

With the ponding lingering in the park, I captured a few more landscape photos that I like well enough, but perhaps I shall save them for another day.

Disndat on a Tuesday

One learns things on blogs.

For some time, I have noted in my British programs that British caskets are different than ours.

Then, I discovered that ours are caskets and theirs are coffins.

The main difference between a casket and a coffin is their shape and construction: caskets are rectangular with four sides, often made of metal or high-quality wood with hinged, split lids. Coffins have six or eight sides, tapering to be wider at the shoulders and narrower at the feet. Caskets are common in North America, while coffins are more traditional, particularly in Europe. (AI)

Now, I know, and this pleases me for some reason.

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Last April, I noted that two daffodil plants had suddenly appeared in our little front garden. They were a bit of a mystery and still are because we hadn't had daffodils appear for quite some time. It's nice that they are back this year.

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We have three bags of lawn clippings and leaf littler out front. The town does a special pickup for two weeks each spring and autumn. If we have compostable vegetative matter to discard between those times, we can take it to the compost yard ourselves.

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I sowed (for want of better word because they don't have to go deep) the cosmos seeds that Blondi/Kate sent to me from Saskatchewan late last year. A postal strike caused them to arrive too late to plant last fall. I hope I get some results because I think it would be cool to have flowers from Western Canada in my garden, even if they are also called Mexican Daisies. Mexican Daisies via Saskatchewan would be most agreeable to me.

internet

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Sunday was warm, in the high teens or mid-sixties, depending on where you live. For some reason this guy almost ruined the mood. Time and place, bud.

Sometimes the Solution is Close to Hand

Sue had a problem on Saturday when her photo demanded something to do with ground cover. One of her group had photos of a blanket of woodland bluebells, but what was Sue to do on a very windy day? The immediate thought was to return to the squill patch and try her best.

She took our light, portable and expandable stool and assumed the position.

I went to the other patch on the same lawn, lay myself prone, and tried to photograph a single plant. It was tough in the wind as this short clip will attest. (Of course, you know that you can click to see the clip large.)

I had the phone steady on a holding device for a change and clicked image after image, hoping for a clear photo. This ↓ one was the steadiest shot that I got. I deleted a few dozen others. You can see some of the larger patch off in the background, left. They were plentiful over there.

My thumb kept on hitting the reverse, selfie button; eventually, I took the shot.

I had been prone long enough that getting un-proned was a struggle for my 78-year-old self. When I got as far as my knees I paused to take another selfie.

Sue was still trying to get her photo of the day, so I wandered to the river side of the property, and took a video of the still-raging river.

We left with Sue not being exactly exhilarated with her photos. When we got home, I happened to glance across the street. The neighbours over there have a big tree obscuring the front of their place, but I spied colour beyond the gap under said tree.

We went over and found that the spot was somewhat sheltered from the wind. Sue found a photo that worked for her: yellow daffodils with blue squill in the complementary background. It was perfect for her task, or at least close enough under the circumstances.

After going around and about, what Sue had needed lay almost on her own doorstep.

Bloodroot and Squill on the Trail

For our Friday walk, we decided to drive to the part of the Riverwalk Trail by the arena. We were hoping that some wildflowers might be appearing.

It was Sue who first spotting small white flowers down  a little offshoot path from the main trail.

My bending low shots have been pretty poor lately, but this is what bloodroot looks like, or at least what it looked like on Friday morning. Apparently, when it opens, it will resemble the third photo, below, which I am obtaining from Wikipedia. (My bend down photos are terrible again. I will try to do better.)

Wikipedia

Sanguinaria canadensis, bloodroot, is a perennial, herbaceous flowering plant native to eastern North America. It is the only species in the genus Sanguinaria . . .

Plants are variable in leaf and flower shape, and have been separated as a different subspecies due to these variable shapes, indicating a highly variable species.

In bloodroot, the sap is red and poisonous. Products made from sanguinaria extracts, such as black salve, are escharotic and can cause permanent disfiguring scarring. If applied to the skin, the extract sanguinarine may cause a massive scab of dead flesh where it killed the cells, called an eschar. (Wikipedia)

Farther along the trail, sharp-eyed Sue, spotted purple. I remember this patch of squill from last year. Once again, my bend-down pics failed, so I am not going to post them.

They were right beside the main trial on the right.

You'll have to bend better than that, AC.

Scilla siberica, the Siberian squill or wood squill, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae, native to southwestern Russia, the Caucasus, and Turkey. Despite its name, it is not native to Siberia.

Many parts of the plant such as the flowers, fruits, leaves, roots, sap, seeds, and stem are poisonous to eat for some animals. (Wikipedia)

One more thing: the swampy area on that one spot along the trail was ... um ... very swampy.

Hyacinths and Daffodils

Certain houses back onto our local park on one side. This ↓ lady has a garden, which she is quite willing to share. I mean the lady on the balcony. She is British, which probably explains why she has such a nice, little garden. But perhaps that is too much of a stereotype? 

The lady was very friendly and didn't mind us trodding about her garden.

On a windy day, I took a few quick snaps. The pics are nothing special to look at, but the flowers were certainly good to see. There were hyacinths and two varieties of daffs. No tulips yet, but they will come in time. You can also see some low-lying purple squill in the background of some of the photos.

I know that I do go on, but spring flowers are just so doggone wonderful to see and last for such a short time. 

Photos from the Unveiling

I have more photos to post of the Unveiling or Opening of the WWI planes exhibit this week. I could have posted them with the original post, but that piece seemed complete as it was.

I begin with another photo of the Baron's Fokker is descent mode.

The two planes had very busy backgrounds hanging from the ceiling, so I used my very dubious photoshop skills to try to extract them and fill in the background with skies. I just wanted to see if I could do it, and I did, if not well. The second one went a little easier after I fumbled my way through the first. That makes sense. Right?

TV News showed up. I am so charmed with their little rigs working around an iPhone. I asked him if he had once carried those huge cameras that were used up until recently. He had. I also asked if he was responsible doing the editing. Yes, he edited his stills but not the videos.

We met up with our  former neighbour. Al was part of the leadership that got the Men's Shed started in our town, and he remains active in the group at 93 years of age. He is well respected and loved.

Sue greeted town councillor, Linda. Sue likes people. I will never understand that about her.

My friend, Bob, who loves shooting events, was there with his Canon. I fiddled with editing this photo and sent him a copy. I think he liked it.

Most of us, however, are more familiar with the alternate version.

Addendum from Sue