October Weather

Still Troubled

Bottled water is unnecessary.

The Walkerton incident in Ontario a few years ago was an opportunity for big business to play on people's fears to create a market for itself.

There's nothing wrong with our water!!!!

How the Sun says Good Night to the Lake

That Beautiful Little Froggie Again!

Purple Loosestrife

Red Pine Bark

Sun Dancing

Day

Night

Ill-fated Froggie

Morning

Evening

The Point

Clouds on the Horizon

Glow in the Dusk

Knot Forming

Wild Basil

I ate a leaf of this and it tasted like tame basil...only wilder - lol!

Shadows on Snow

It was so cold on this day last winter that at the end of my ski trek, the inside of my nylon shell was covered in frost. A good thing to think of on a hot day in the middle of summer.

The Swamp

You can see the course the stream used to flow along in this picture.

Joe Pye Weed

I wondered who Joe Pye was - here is a possibility:

"Joe Pye reputedly was an Indian healer who lived in colonial New England, and who used this herb to cure typhoid and other fevers. Another possible source of the name is jopi-an Indian word for typhoid so another name is jopiweed."
St. Olaf College

I think I favour the second idea...

The Same Bug

This is the same bug as the previous one, but showing the top of its wings. It's a type of butterfly and is called Least Skipper.

A Very Cute Bug

Rock Face

The Takers and the Leavers

The following discussion is about the book, Ishmael by Daniel Quinn.

Quinn says Ishmael is a story about hope. "I think we have a much finer and more exciting destiny than conquering and ruling the world," he says.
Daniel Quinn on Ishmael

"The premise of the Leaver story is that man belongs to the world. Right from the beginning, everything that ever lived belonged to the world — and that's how things came to be this way in the Leaver culture. The single cell creatures that swarm in the ancient ocean belonged to the world, and because they did, everything that followed came into being. Those club-finned fish off shore of the continents belonged to the world and because they did, the amphibians eventually came into being; and because the amphibians belonged to the world, the reptiles eventually came into being; and because the reptiles belonged to the world, the mammals eventually came into being; and because the mammals belonged to the world, the primates came into being; and eventually man as we know him today came into being. That is the way the Leavers lived for three million years — as if they belonged to the world. Under this premise, creation goes on forever. Each species has the opportunity to evolve to whatever state possible.

There are several significant things the Takers do that are never done in the rest of the community of life. Ishmael explains that these are all fundamental to the Takers' civilization system. First, they eliminate their competitors, which is something that never happens in the wild. In the wild, animals will defend their territories and their kills and they may invade their competitor's territories and preempt their kills, but they never hunt competitors down just to destroy them, the way some ranchers and farmers do with coyotes and foxes. Generally, in the wild when animals hunt, they eat. When aimals go hunting, it is to obtain food, not to exterminate competitors or even animals that prey on them. Second, the Takers systematically destroy their competitors' food to make room for their own. This does not occur in the natural community, where the rule is take what you need and leave the rest alone. Third, the Takers deny their competitors' access to food. In contrast, in the wild you may deny your competitors' access to what you are eating, but you may not deny them access to food in general. The lion may say, "This gazelle is mine," but he doesn't say, 'All the gazelles are mine.'"
Wise Ishmael

My spin on this: animals and humans are the same - animals probably do most of these things, or would if they had the chance. People aren't trying to be evil - we're just too successful. We simply need to exercise our reason, take a look around us and crank it down a notch or two. It's time.

Forest in the City

Sombre Splendour

Rhythm of the Shore

Light Blessing

Sun on the Water

This is one of my favourite things to watch - it gives me one of those warm and peaceful feelings. A photo cannot do it justice though; you need to be present when it's happening.

Teasel

I wondered if the name, Teasel is related to the name, Thistle - they sound alike & the plants have some similarities.

Its seeds are favoured by goldfinches and some people cultivate them in their gardens to attract the birds.

The head of the plant used to be used to "tease" or card wool, to raise and smooth the nap of the fabric. It has been called "card teasel" or "card thistle" also.

References:
herbs2000.com
Ohio Perennial and Biennial Weed Guide
Wikipedia

Blurrrdock

Usually when we think of burdock, we think of the round, dried out seed capsules that stick to our clothes or our pets' fur when we brush past it. When it is in flower though, it is quite beautiful.

A funny quote:

"Burdock is any of a group of biennial thistles in the genus Arctium, family Asteraceae...

The prickly heads of these Old World plants are noted for easily catching on to fur and clothing, thus providing an excellent mechanism for seed dispersal. Burrs cause local irritation and can possibly cause intestinal hairballs in pets. However, most animals avoid ingesting these plants."
Wikipedia

The Bee's Knees

Buziness
Check out this link for an explanation of the expression, "The Bee's Knees"

Still Waters

This is a very deep lake (22.5 metres), considering its relatively small surface area (you can walk around it in about half an hour). It is called a meromictic lake, meaning that the deeper levels of water are indeed very still - they do not mix with the water closer to the surface, an unusual situation in lakes. Although water flows into the lake, and rain falls into it, this water from the environment doesn't sink down to the bottom. One of the results is that there is no oxygen in the deepest water to cause chemical changes in organic matter that does reach the lake floor.

This means that sediments that are in the lake have remained there unchanged for hundreds of years.

The conservation area which manages this lake doesn't allow swimming, fishing or boating, so that the lake continues to be undisturbed.

Archeologists have been able to take samples of sediments from the lake bed and analyze and date them, to find that there are grains of pollen from corn which was cultivated by the Iroquoian people, as early as 1000 AD.

References:
Wikipedia
Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources
Meromicitc Lakes
Processes of a Meromictic Lake
Conservation Halton
Archeological Research in the Crawford Lake Area

Symmetry

Patterns in nature aren't usually as balanced as this.

May the Peace of God

which passes all understanding

make us one in spirit and in heart.

Reflecting

Trees at Dusk

Rouge River

Rouge River Where it Meets Lake Ontario
This is the present boundary between Toronto and Pickering.

The French named the river, Riviere Rouge because of the reddish colour of its banks.

Historically (12,500 years ago) it was part of Lake Iroquois, the ancestor of Lake Ontario, a much larger lake whose water level was about 60 meters higher than the present shore of Lake Ontario.

The name given to the river by the Iroquois Nation was Katabokokonk, meaning "river of easy entrance". The Mississauga Nation called it Che Sippi, which means "large creek".

The area around this river has been minimally "developed", the preservation of its wild lands having been an issue in municipal politics in the city of Scarborough for some time, and is a continuing concern for many people who live in its environs. It is one of the largest remnants of the Carolinian forest in southern Ontario and is of great interest to naturalists and geologists.

"According to the Rouge Park Ecological Survey (1990, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources), the lower Rouge Park ecosystem is home to:

at least 762 plant species (25% of Ontario's native flora species);
225 bird species (123 breeding species);
55 fish species;
27 mammal species;
19 reptile and amphibian species."
(Friends of the Rouge Watershed)

There is a 450 million year old formation of shale on the lower reaches of the river bank called the Whitby Formation. It contains fossils of creatures who lived in the shallow inland sea which covered much of east central North America in that period. Most of the bedrock, however, is covered by sediments from the melting of the Wisconsin glacier (Lake Iroquois) 12,000 to 13,000 years ago. This sediment consists of limestone, sand, and large granite boulders carried down from the Canadian Shield.

References:
Wikipedia
Welcome to Rivernen
Friends of the Rouge Watershed

Monarch Butterfly

Monarch butterflies migrate as far as 4,800 kilometers.
MonarchWatch Migration and Tagging

This is a well-known fact. What isn't as well known (at least I didn't know until now) is that each year, 4 generations of Monarch Butterflies are born in their northern habitat, and only the last generation performs the migration. The life spans of the first three generations last only about 6 - 8 weeks each. The first generation is born in March/April, the second in May/June, and the third in July/August. The fourth generation is born in September/October and when the butterflies are mature, they fly south. This last generation's life span is about 6 - 8 months long. They hibernate in the south and then in February/March, they fly north again, lay their eggs and die.
Monarch Butterfly USA - Life Cycle

This butterfly is a second generation butterfly.

Monarch Caterpillar

A Monarch is a caterpillar for about 2 weeks. Then it grows its pupal skin and begins to metamorphose. During metamorphosis, a great deal of the caterpillar's body dies (it is actually digested by its own digestive enzymes) and becomes liquid. There are a few key bits of tissue left, however, in different areas of the body which are not digested, called "imaginal buds" or "histoblasts", and these contain the information needed to rebuild the digested "soup" into a butterfly body.
Gordon's 1st Lepidoptera Page - (Butterflies)

Rock On

Sunlight through Fern

I recently became interested in how plants work. My vague memories from science classes weren't telling me what I wanted to know, so I started doing some searching.

In the process, I was startled by a fact which I didn't ever really quite realize --- plants are virtually the only source of oxygen on the planet. So without them, we would just simply die. I'd been aware of several reasons, besides my own love of nature, why trees are so important, but hadn't ever quite twigged (pardon the pun) to this one.

"The overall chemical reaction involved in photosynthesis is: 6CO2 + 6H2O (+ light energy) = C6H12O6 + 6O2. [or carbon dioxide plus water acted on by light energy (in chloroplasts) produce glucose and oxygen] This is the source of the O2 we breathe, and thus, a significant factor in the concerns about deforestation."
University of Cincinnati

Carbon dioxide, on the other hand, is present in the atmosphere regardless of whether humans are breathing or not, so though we may need plants, they don't need us. A humbling thought.

Knapweed II

This is a Knapweed flower in full blossom. The following is an account of how the flower got its "common" name:

"The flower-head is hard and solid, [this can be only partly seen in this picture behind the petals] a mass of bracts lapping over each other like tiles, each having a central green portion and a black fringe-like edge. In some districts the plant is called from these almost round heads, 'Hardhead,' and the ordinary English name, Knapweed, is based on the same idea, Knap, being a form of Knop, or Knob."

[It has also been called] Hardhead. Ironhead. Hard Irons. Churls Head. Logger Head. Horse Knops. Matte Felon. Mat Fellon. Bottleweed. Bullweed. Cowede. Boltsede.

This larger species of Knapweed was in olden times called 'Matte Felon,' from its use in curing felons or whitlows. As early as 1440 we find it called 'Maude Felone,' or 'Boltsede.'"
Botanical.com

Knapweed

Knapweed is in the genus, Centaurea, a group of "herbaceous thistles and thistle-like flowering plants in the family Asteraceae".
Wikipedia

This flower is in its early stage of opening. It becomes much fuller as it matures.

In an Ontario wildflowers website, the author identifies this flower as Spotted Knapweed - Centaurea maculosa.
Wildflowers of Ontario

There are several species (and subspecies, apparently) of Spotted Knapweed and classifying them (as with many other plants) can be very confusing, especially when common names are used. To complicate matters, the same name is sometimes used for different plants, depending on geographical or cultural location.

The scientific classification is far more precise (though there are discrepancies of opinion even in the scientific realm). Here is an example of the standard set of hierarchical categories that all plants have a place in:

Kingdom Plantae -- Plants
Subkingdom Tracheobionta -- Vascular plants
Superdivision Spermatophyta -- Seed plants
Division Magnoliophyta -- Flowering plants
Class Magnoliopsida -- Dicotyledons
Subclass Asteridae
Order Asterales
Family Asteraceae -- Aster family
Genus Centaurea L. -- knapweed P
Species Centaurea stoebe L. -- spotted knapweed P
Subspecies Centaurea stoebe L. ssp. micranthos (Gugler) Hayek -- spotted knapweed P
USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service

Musk Mallow

A very beautiful wildflower, "it emits from its leaves a faint, musky odour, especially in warm weather, or when drawn through the hand."
Botanical.com

This flower is a member of the Mallow Family. Our candy, the marshmallow, is now made from sugar and gelatin, but was originally made from the root of the marsh mallow plant, another member of the same family.

The root of the plant has mucilage in it, a sticky, sugary substance.
Wikipedia

"The first marshmallows were made by boiling pieces of the marsh mallow root pulp with sugar until it thickened. After it had thickened, the mixture was strained and cooled. As far back as 2000 B.C., Egyptians combined the marsh mallow root with honey. The candy was reserved for gods and royalty."
How Products are Made

Not a Wild Flower?

Sweet Peas
I couldn't find this flower in my wildflower book, so I checked it out & found that the sweet peas we see today, which do grow outside of cultivated areas sometimes, are "cultivars" which have been developed by humans from the original "wild flower", a native of the Mediterranean area.

"Sweet Pea (Lathyrus odoratus) is a flowering plant in the genus Lathyrus in the family Fabaceae (legumes), native to the eastern Mediterranean region from Sicily east to Crete...

Unlike most peas, the seeds of the sweet pea are poisonous as they contain a neurotoxin, and should not be eaten...

Sweet peas have been cultivated since the 17th century and a vast number of cultivars are commercially available...

Harry Eckford (died 1906), a nurseryman of Scottish descent, cross-bred and developed the sweet pea, turning it from a rather insignificant, if sweetly scented flower, into the floral sensation of the late Victorian era."
Wikipedia

Flame Lichen

"Lichens are the most overlooked of the conspicuous organisms in the natural landscape. The eye often cannot see what the mind does not already know."
Lichens of North America

Bark Brake

Parting Clouds

Falls

A Smile

Window