We were both off work on Thursday this week for Remembrance Day and, unusually for this late in the year, it was a beautiful day. We decided to take a walk down to the stream to see how it was coping with all the heavy rain that fell since last weekend. We ended up touring around some of the farm fields back there, too. We took a lot of pictures to share with you and, just for fun, I’m including a map to show you where they were taken.
The letters on the map corresponds to the letters at each picture.
The privacy walls are complete. (map"A")
We started off at the gazebo to check out Hubby’s latest efforts. He has completed (!) the two solid walls which face the road now and you can really see how the finished building is going to look. The white of soffits and trim nicely offsets the cedar shingles and spindles. Next we went down to the garden to talk to the pumpkins which are slowly disintegrating back into the ground. The crows are helping. There are a bunch of new holes where the birds have been pecking them.
The pumpkins are slowly melting into the garden. (map"B")
We started down the path to the stream and were once again surprised at just how big the trees are getting. They have only been in the ground here for 6 years and some of them are already over 10 feet. There are lots of wild volunteers sprouting up, too. It’s always good to have some diversity.
When we got down to the stream we could see that the water level was high, almost as high as during spring run-off, but it didn’t seem as if it had flooded over the banks. It was running nice and clear, too. We even spotted some trout swimming in some of the deeper pools.
We started our walk on the pathway to the woods. (map"C")
The stream was very full because it rained almost non-stop for a week. (map"D")
A weird looking fungus was stuck to this tree trunk. (map"E")
Even though there has been a huge amount of rain this week the water in the stream is still nice and clear. (map"F")
It was a fantastic day to walk in the woods. The wind was calm and the sun was shining. The trees still have some colour as well, just like this beautiful maple tree which was blazing in a clearing. We didn’t see a whole lot of wildlife, just some chickadees and blue jays, but we did scare one snowshoe hare out from cover. He was half way through his change from his brown summer coat into his white winter fur. He didn’t seem to be in too much of a hurry to get away. He had probably heard us crashing through the brush for an hour and knew right where we were.
This maple tree was a beautiful splash of colour in the darkness of the woods. (map"G")
The birch trees have really taken over in this section of the woods. (map"H")
The dog wood bushes make a nice contrast to the golden colour of the grass in this fallow farm field. (map"I")
Once we got to the top of the hill we to the opportunity to look back and see the house from a distance. The gazebo looked good at the side; its white trim really stood out. I just hope it doesn’t start falling apart like the grape arbour down in the fruit tree meadow. That poor old thing has lost almost its entire upper arch and the grape vines were long ago eaten by the mice. We found a couple of ripe pears on the ground under the pear tree. I had no idea that it had matured enough to actually produce fruit. Maybe there’s hope for my peach trees after all. After all they’re doing much better than the cherry tree which is not only dead but is now playing host to a weird fungus, too.
Looking back from the dog woods you can just make out the gazebo to the right of our house in the distance. (map"J")
Back in our own yard now you can see just how much the arbour has failed in the last year or two. (map"K")
While we were checking out the trees in the meadow we discovered that the pear tree had actually produced some fruit. Who knew!" (map"L")
Right beside then pear tree the fox den was showing signs of recent activity. (map"L")
This tree apparently died a while ago and now this interesting fungus has colonized it. (map"L")
We had a great walk, got some sunshine and exercise, had an opportunity to remember just how lucky we are to be living in this wonderful country and appreciate the sacrifices others had made to allow us to do so. I’m very grateful.
