It looks like this winter is going to be another topsy-turvy one. The freezing rain that has just started as I write this column may be heavy and dangerous. I hope not. The thaw has created a covering of water on the ice of the millpond. The other day I… Continue reading
In the bleak mid-winter Frosty wind made moan; Earth stood hard as iron, Water like a stone; Snow had fallen, snow on snow, Snow on snow, In the bleak mid-winter Long ago. This is the first verse of a well known poem by the English poet Christina Rossetti. It is… Continue reading
It’s been a glorious fall and still a few leaves linger on some trees. But the weather is showing signs that fall is ready to leave the stage and welcome in winter. This is an “in-between” kind of season but it has attractions all its own. A big thank you… Continue reading
Some birds you look up to see on the wing and some you have to look up in a book. On a good day, you’ll encounter both. On a good day, maybe hiking on Medd’s Mountain on a crisp morning with dry leaves swirling around your ankles, or strolling amid… Continue reading
The Distillery Street entrance to Medd’s Mountain Park is still blocked off; but you can walk beside the fencing and enter the park. As well, you can enter the park via the boardwalk from the Old Millbrook School. I really encourage you to walk along this boardwalk, especially at this… Continue reading
Many of us thought the summer would never come. Were we ever wrong! And in both the garden and in wild areas plants seem to have caught up after the very slow spring. Now we are definitely in high summer. However, already the days are getting noticeably shorter in the… Continue reading
The first day of summer was marvellous! That day I discovered that a maple tree that hangs slightly over from the neighbours’ yard was host to two bird nests this season. An oriole chose it for her nest high up in the branches; while quite low a family of vireos… Continue reading
With the summer solstice just a few weeks away, we will soon say goodbye to a very bad winter and a very strange spring. All the spring firsts were delayed this year, from the first sightings of red-winged blackbirds to the long-awaited display of spring ephemerals like trout lilies and… Continue reading
I promise I won’t dwell on the negatives! In my column for March of this year I wrote that this time of year was always two steps forward and one step back but this year it seems more like one step forward and three steps back! But to be positive… Continue reading
