That was a surprise!

It was garbage day. Hubby had put out all the

Below her is a gully
where she was keen on something

garbage and recycling. I'm still taking it easy. I picked up some ditch garbage that afternoon, and I was sorry I did. I had some coughing fits afterwards.

Using my handy garbage-spearing stick (it was a gift!), it helped me reach some of the cans. I even found a dial phone in the ditch, without the dial! Not a bad haul. The more regularly I do it, the better. Mostly, Timmy Ho's cups, chucked out of a vehicle into the ditch. You wonder why someone would be concerned about keeping a vehicle clean, but doesn't care about our ditches. Then there are the ubiquitous beer cans, as well as 3 large, empty 1-litre vodka bottles.

Daisy dallies – fearless!

I walked out onto the back deck with my coffee. There was Daisy, sitting watching something very interesting. The gully rises up on the other side, and then there is a ditch beside the highway, and in the ditch is the body of a dead deer. I believe the deer was hit by a car, back legs splayed out.

Dorah came along to see what was up.
No sign of the fox, now!
The mosses are a beautiful green

Something has been at it  –not our wolf, as the carcass has barely been touched. As the recycling truck came by, and all the glass was noisily dumped into the truck, something was startled in the gully. I watched carefully, knowing Daisy had her eye on something, and a Red fox ran away from the sound of the truck, along the fence.

Red fox from my archives

Down I went, camera in hand, to see what was up. I think she has enough sense in the forest, she is attuned to every noise, that she'd run and climb a tree if it came at her. It was clearly ignoring her and running in the other direction.

a fox: Awfully pretty!

Wetland walkies

It's a pretty busy forest. We kept on walking, and did a round about tour following the edge of the wetland. Something was out there, though, and Daisy could hear it.

Moss, bright green, still

Both looked north at the same time!

We were down by the frog pond, here. The girls could hear something I could not hear. They were looking into the wetland, where we have an island plunked in the middle of the wetland that divides our property (16 acres) and the neighbour's 35 acres.

They were watchful all the way around the frog pond, gazing with concern into the wetland. 

We made it back up to the front yard, and the house, and spotted nothing. Thankfully!

Daisy was much interested, Dorah ears perked.

The green bulrushes are happy with the temperatures.
Beyond is the wetland, towards the neighbour's.
They don't live there, but hunt there.

With the leaves down,
you can see where the forest begins again.
The wetland cleans the water as it goes back
into Otty Lake and the aquifer.

A Nursing tree.
A birch has grown in
an old tree stump.

We saw Nursing trees in Vancouver's Stanley Park.
Daisy still keen on something on the island.

And still she is looking!

Love the greenery!

Stanley Park trees

This topic required a post of its own. They truly are amazing, these trees. With the temperate climate, and warm winters as well as the moisture, they are massive. Their rich, green mossy bark is a feast for the eyes. In the centre of the park is Hollow Tree. You can see me standing within the rotted trunk.
I
We took a horse and wagon ride. We were taught about a Nursing Stump by our tour guide. This is a broken tree trunk which hosts a seeding. The seedling grows, throws roots overboard, and as the old trunk disintegrates, carries on.

On Dec. 15, 2006, they lost nearly 10,000 trees to a massive storm. This amounts to 5 - 10% of all trees in the park. The feds and provincial governments donated money, as did billionaire Jimmy Pattison. It took $9.5 million. There were 120 km/hr winds and pounding waves. It took a year to reopen the Stanley Park seawall, clearing debris.

The trees were chopped in half, set upright again, to minimize the damage. Finally, 18,000 new trees were planted to restore the park to some semblance of normal. The bonus has been these nursing stumps, which host new seedlings, as well as provide a home to birds.

Stanley Park - nursing stump from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.