July 29, 1999

A pleasant summer day. Not as hot as yesterday, and with a few clouds around, but still pleasant - around 20 C.

Today I was out looking for what berries I could find, and a few other specific things I had noticed on my walk yesterday. I ended up with quite a few more pictures than I had originally intended.

Outside the viewing area across the street from where I live, are these bushes with blue berries on them. I have no idea what they are, but I've never seen anyone pick them. Anyone recognize them?

A few feet away, this low bush is now showing lots of seed pods.

Remember all those Carragana flowers I had pictures of? Well, the flowers end up as these seed pods. Later in the summer, they will ripen more, causing the pods to dry and twist. They are held closed by both ends, but eventually one end will let go and the pod will explode with a loud click, sending the seeds for several feet.

One of the common berries around here is the saskatoon. It is quite edible, but somewhat bland. It goes well in pies, mixed with something tart like rhubarb. There aren't very many of them this year - the cool wet spring apparantly kept them back. Some years, you can see them clustered like grapes.

	See the fuzzy fluff balls here? Those are the resulting seed things on the wild Clematis just down the street.
	Here is another kind of berry. I don't know what it is.

Further down the street were two more kinds of berries, right beside each other. One berry that looks something like this is the kind that forms on the Mayday trees - those with the masses of white multiple blossoms in the spring.

	Here is the common Mountain Ash, that the Cedar Waxwings like. Later the berries will turn bright red. I have a winter shot of some red berries with heaps of snow on them.
	These small blue daisy-like flowers are seen fairly often.

Here are the two kinds of clover we see here - the tame stuff in lawns, and the larger wild stuff.

	Here is a good shot of a little white flower.
	This flower is all too common around here. It turns into a mass of fluff that blows the seeds all over. It might actually be a bit hard to identify in this shot, but its just a Canada Thistle.
	See? Here's a wall of them that I wouldn't want to have to walk through!
	Here are a bunch of seed cases on a common tree. They dry out, turn brown and fly away, spinning like little helicopter blades.
	A poor shot (too bright) of tall yellow wildflowers.

The wild roses are pretty much gone, but they leave behind all these rosehips. Its too bad they aren't really edible. You can make jelly and tea out of them, but personally I really dislike the taste of rosehips.

	An interesting looking wildflower.
	This is just a small patch filled with a variety of things. Most of the flowers are just thistles, but there are a couple of other kinds.
	I don't know what this one is called, but even though it is kind of pretty, it is becoming a real nuisance. It is taking over untended flower gardens, grows under hedges, beside houses, etc. You can see the flowers well into the fall.

This sequence of three shots shows zooming in on the flowers on a tree on my walk. It must have "honey" or "sweet" or something in its name, since it smells quite sweet, and the bees, wasps, etc. love it.

Here is a random shot down the main trail I am on.

These white berries are fairly common. I don't think they are edible, and I wouldn't want to try. There are lots of them around.

	Are these things berries? I don't think so, but they must be a seed case of some kind. The white thing just above the green seed thing is likely an egg mass of some kind. Update: this is actually a hazel nut case. Identifying the leaves in the fall (they turn colour early) shows that we have lots of the bushes, but very few of the nuts. I believe the exact class is "Beaked Hazel", (Corylus cornuta).
	This looks like some kind of mushroom - growing right on the edge of the main trail.

I think these two are the same berry - one set has turned red, but the other is still white. They grow low down to the ground, and are are not as common as other kinds.

	Another little flower, and some clover.
	Here is a better shot of one of those yellow flowers.
	Followed by a poor shot of another little white flower.
	As is usual for summer here, there are lots of dragonflies around. This is a pretty green one. I tried for a closer shot, but he ended up in shadow and the contrast was too much to see him. I also saw yellow ones and blue/black ones.
	This yellow flower was right on the edge of the bank, at one of the viewpoints I use.
	This is just a nice mixture of flowers.
	I wish these were more common. They are in other parts of the city, such as in Mill Creek Ravine, but this is the first time I've seen one is my current walk area. I don't think I'll get many raspberries off this particular tiny bush!

This pair of shots shows an area of a tall violet flowers. Are these the ones called "Fireweed" or "Indian Paintbrush"?

Here is a patch of vetch beside the bicycle path.

I thought I would show the two directions down the bicycle path from one point. There was traffic, but not at this instant.

	This smaller path joins the paved bicycle path to the main trail lower down.
	This smaller trail is heading from the previous one towards where the standard "trio" is.
	Here is looking down from the ridge that that small trail goes along for a while.
	And here is the trio itself. It doesn't stand out anywhere near as well as in the winter, when all the leaves are gone.

Going back from the trio, I spotted these mushrooms. Since I didn't see them on the way up, it might have been me that knocked the big one down.

	I was going to take another picture of just bush, when I spotted these in a tree-stump.
	Heading up towards the hollow, I was looking for a good shot of moss. Instead, I spotted these bluebell-like flowers.
	This trail I don't use very often, but it is an interesting one in places. Here it comes along the crest of mossy rise.
	Finally the hollow itself. Can't see much in the summer!

Climbing up to the street there is lots of this stuff. By the looks of it, it must be some wild form of rhubarb. Growing 6 feet high each season is doing pretty good, I think!

	This isn't a very good shot, because it was quite windy at the time, but this wild apple tree on the side of the bank produces quite tasty apples. It looks like they will be ready in another couple of weeks.
	Naturally I spot the best batch of berries on the way home.
	This is a patch of that blue daisy-like wildflower.