Spring Review on the Eve of Summer Solstice

“The earth laughs in flowers.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Tulip Festival at Dows Lake Ottawa ON

Today is the last day of Spring 2023 and it has been a beautiful season. Temperatures have been generally moderate with a little heat and just enough rain. We had some drifting smoke from wildfires in other provinces but had no fires locally. 

I have enjoyed viewing many beautiful flowers in the past six weeks. The Tulip Festival in Ottawa was spectacular this year. The double-bloom tulip beds were at their peak Mother's Day weekend.

We re-visited a tulip farm where you could pick your own flowers or just take pictures on the props set up around the fields

It is a special treat to see a beautiful bird in a flowering tree and one cannot forget the native beauty of our woodland spring ephemerals.

Tomorrow is summer solstice and the beginning of a new season which has a beauty of its own.

Green Corners Farm, Ottawa ON

Hyacinth and Narcissus at Green Corners Farm, Ottawa

Male Baltimore Oriole in an flowering apple tree

Female Orchard Oriole appropriately found in an apple orchard

White Trillium (one of thousands in this particular bush)

Jack-in-the-Pulpit, one of our latest blooming spring ephemerals

At the Water's Edge

Red-headed Woodpecker

I have seen a Red-headed Woodpecker four times in the past 15 years, the last time being an unexpected but exciting close encounter on Manitoulin Island in 2021. I heard reports that a pair appeared to be nesting in a swamp at a natural area that I visit frequently just four kilometres from our home. I rode my bike over early the following day and quickly found this beautiful bird. This species is declining at a rate of about 1% a year with 54% fewer in 2019 than in 1966. I hope this pair breeds successfully and returns again next year.

A beaver swims through water reflections early in the day

While I was watching the woodpecker, a beaver was gliding silently through the water. A swamp appears to be a dead place (other than mosquitoes) until you pay patient attention to the stumps and movement in the water. Wood ducks and Hooded Mergansers were breeding in the vicinity but the brown-coloured females blended in well with the swamp's colour palette. 

A Tree Swallow flew in and out of its nest hole in one of the stumps in the swamp. The city has placed many bird boxes in this natural area and Tree Swallows are quick to settle in the man-made homes. This was my first time seeing a Tree Swallow in a natural cavity. 

Later in the day I rode my bike along the river and saw this Great Blue Heron try for thirty minutes to eat a catfish. The fish was just too big and heavy for the bird to swallow but it persisted for a long time before it flew off in defeat. The catfish would undoubtedly be devoured before long by a nearby mammal or avian scavenger.

Along the same stretch of river, a Great Egret fished more modest-sized prey. These herons do not nest in our area but pass through in spring and fall between their winter and summer breeding grounds.

I also look for plants in bloom near the water. This flower is called The Star of Bethlehem. It belongs to the asparagus family and is propagated by bulbs. It is native to Europe and Africa and was brought to North America as an ornamental and medicinal plant. The flower is lovely but there is always the risk of it becoming invasive and displacing native plants. 

I enjoy nature's diversity immensely and often wonder why we try to pigeonhole human appearance and behaviour within a narrow spectrum of acceptance. The natural world ranges from the subtlety of a female Wood Duck to the flamboyance of both male and female Red-headed Woodpeckers. Each bird species has its own set of songs and calls. I am using The Cornell Lab's Merlin Bird ID app this year to identify bird songs and have found it very useful. How dull it would be if every bird or flower were the same in appearance, sound and behaviour!

Local Explorations: Glen Williams

This is the first summer since the pandemic started when life seems to be back to a new normal. We follow pre-pandemic infection control procedures within the hospital. Masks are only worn for patients on airborne precautions and we can choose whether to mask when walking in the hallways or charting at nursing stations. Highways are busy as people have physically returned to work and school. We are free to travel, eat at restaurants, and visit shops and parks. My good friend suggested we meet for lunch at Glen Williams, a small hamlet just north of Georgetown, Ontario.

Georgetown is less than an hour from our home but I have never visited the area that I can remember. It was a beautiful drive between Guelph and Glen Williams and I imagine that fall colours would be spectacular in October. 

Pottery Studio

Glen Williams has several art studios where artisans sell their work, from glass blowing to pottery, dried flower arrangements, textiles and fine art. After eating a delicious lunch at the Copper Kettle Pub, we visited several studios and I will definitely return when I need to buy a gift for someone. I was fascinated by the glass studio and the interesting variety of paperweights. Grandma D collected blown glass paperweights as souvenirs over her lifetime and kept them in a sunny alcove in the living room with her travel scrapbooks. I loved going through her scrapbooks and admired her paperweight collection. I would settle for one of the lovely small glass pendants on a chain.

Glen Willams Antique Mall

The hamlet also has an antique mall which confirmed that I am an antique myself! Many of the goods for sale were items I have used in the past 60 years. A lot of people accumulated a lot of "things" and then had big estate sales when they downsized or died. I wasn't interested in buying antiques but was motivated to get rid of the many things I have accumulated and no longer use. If you were starting with nothing, this mall would be a great place to find unique accents for a home.

I am grateful to have the time and the means to explore more of our province. I noticed the Lucy Maud Montgomery House and Garden in the Georgetown area as well as several hiking trails in the Credit River Valley that beg another visit. It is time to get back into the swing of local travel and exploration.

Where there's smoke there's fire

Sugar cane burn Nayarit Mexico

Canada's fire season is early and widespread in 2023. Last month western Canada and Nova Scotia were affected and this month the main action has shifted to the province of Quebec. The western fires caused high atmospheric haze in Ontario, but this week's Quebec fires are creating air quality issues in the most populous parts of Ontario. The smoke is penetrating far across the border into the United States. 

One of our daughters stepped outside yesterday and stated, "This smells just like Mexico." We have travelled to Mexico many times to visit family who live there and it is true that when you get off the plane onto the tarmac, the air quality is decidedly tainted. I went to Mexico City for three days in the late 1970s and during our time in the city, I never saw the sun once because of smog. We went 48 km north of the city to see the pyramids the air was much cleaner away from the urban core.

Mom and Dad built a house on the property of one of my brothers when they were semi-retired. The area around Tepic has many sugar cane fields which are burned before harvest. The picture of the fire above was taken across the road from my family's home shortly after Mom died in April 2013.

Gathering sugar cane after the burn

Many of the labourers in the sugar cane fields are from Central America and they live in crude camps during harvest season. Sugar cane workers around the world have a lower-than-average life expectancy and this National Geographic video clip describes the health problems of sugar workers in Central America. The picture above was taken the day after the burn in Nayarit, MX as the workers chopped the canes from the burned field. 

Tepic Nayarit MX

This picture was taken from the back of my parents' house and the smoke from the fires is clearly visible over the valley where the main city is located. While the smoke events this week in eastern North America are significant, we know they will be short-lived. Overall our air quality in Ontario has improved in the past 15-20 years as coal-fueled plants have closed in the province. We used to have 40 to 50 "smog days" each summer where humidity kept pollutants in the lower atmosphere. There have been very few smog days in SW Ontario in the past decade due to stricter government controls on industry and transportation.

But the people who produce the majority of the goods for our insatiable consumer appetites live in countries where air quality is consistently poor and things essential for good health and quality of life;- clean water, adequate food, housing, accessible health care, and education, may not be available.  The World Health Organization estimates that 3.2 million people die prematurely each year due to household air pollution caused by cooking fires and inefficient stoves.

I am not concerned about the effects of this week's smoke from Quebec on my health but it has made me think about the quality of life of the people who produce the things I buy and consume. I am reminded to find ways to cut down on human activities that contribute negatively to the health of our planet. I want to do what I can to ensure the world will be a good place for my children, grandchildren and all the children of the world.

School children celebrating Mexican Independence Day- September 2019

World Bicycle Day and a Strawberry Full Moon

Viewing Sunset and Moonrise tonight

"In April 2018, the United Nations General Assembly declared June 3 as World Bicycle Day. The resolution for World Bicycle Day recognizes "the uniqueness, longevity and versatility of the bicycle, which has been in use for two centuries, and that it is a simple, affordable, reliable, clean and environmentally fit sustainable means of transport."" (Wikipedia)

I learned to ride a two-wheeled bike the summer I was eight years old. We lived in Aurora after returning to Canada from South Africa. The streets in the small, quiet town, pop. 5,000, were safe for me to ride to my heart's content. I took the bicycle safety lessons given in my 3rd-grade class seriously and signalled all my turns and stops. As a teenager, Mom rode her bicycle from the same town to the family farm five miles away to care for her horse. She often rode a bicycle to complete errands around town when she was raising the five of us. Very few suburban families had two vehicles in the 1960s and 1970s. I have always had a bike and it is one of my favourite ways of getting around town. Our city had an excellent trail system when we moved here in 1970 and there have been significant improvements to local bicycle routes in the past few years. 

I use a tracking app when I ride, but there are times I forget to turn it on, as I have for my last two trips. I logged 5120 km in the past few years on Strava and know the actual distance is more than that. Nearly all my rides are less than 10 km but they do add up. This week I commuted to work three days, went bike-birding two days, and did a trip up the old landfill hill tonight to see the evening sky.

Sunset tonight at 8:58 PM

This is one of the few months of the year when the sun sets to the west as the full moon rises to the east. 

Strawberry Full Moon Rise at 9:03 PM

A local astronomy club had a telescope on the hill for anyone to use. Venus and Mars are also visible tonight and this is one of the best local spots to photograph the sky. From a cycling perspective, this park is on the city trail system, features a one-kilometre paved circular track that I use frequently, and a BMX park for cyclists who are far more skilled than I am. There is a bicycling style for everyone.