All the small things..

Walking is my reset button. It's not a permanent fix, but it seems to take the mental clutter or emotional chaos that seems to regularly build up,and resets my perspective. I determine to take my time, notice the small things, and take that moment to marvel. Things in life can change in a moment. I may only have a moment to enjoy what is before me before it is gone. I don't mean that in a cosmic sense, although that is certainly true, but contemplation of the fleetingness of life etc., will engender melancholia, so I try to focus on what I see and hear around me; the small details. 

I was walking by my favorite pond one evening recently, and I noticed this; four webs all in this small group of branches. While I was just as happy that the master engineer was not in its web, you have to admire the amazing work of art and architecture it has created. And if you are like me, give thanks that Darwin's bark spider which is able to build a web which can span a river and made of silk as strong as steel, does not live in North America. shudder

The fruit of the walnut tree is maturing and if you have walked near these trees recently, you may have noticed its fruit turning up in odd places such as balancing on branches, sitting in limb notches or suspended in vines.

I suspect that a possible culprit might be the red squirrel, ninja warrior of the forest. They are feisty and vocal and will take on their larger counterparts. It is my personal opinion that if you walk beneath a walnut tree, you will not only get a loud scolding, but there might be a nut or two launched in your direction. True story.

 At this time of year it seems like trees have branches just so vines can drape over them. Wild cucumber, wild grape, and wild virginia creeper are blanketing shrubs and and winding up trunks and in the case of virginia creeper, turning them red. They are basically looking for light and provide food and shelter in the woodland. This tree trunk caught my eye because of the obvious scar left on its trunk. Clearly not all vines are benign.

While some, if they noticed, might see this leave as unsightly, I thought that the pattern inscribed on the leaf was fascinating and lovely. The artist is the larvae of any one of four groups of insects which feeds, or "mines", between the layers of the leaf. Gardeners are not happy to see these drawings on their plants but in the wild it is just another small wonder to notice. At least I think so. 

   

                                                 

This photo reflects a small thing in terms of time, a few moments only, but a huge thing in terms of impact. This is probably the closest I have ever been to a blue heron. It landed on a log just beside the path, near a little creek where it must have thought it would find a snack. Normally these lovely birds are pretty skittish so I was thrilled to be not only this close, but to be able to record the moment.  Truly serendipitous!

These berries are the fruit of the Jack-in-the-Pulpit, a unique spring wildflower so named because it resembles a pulpit with a preacher standing in it. "Jack" does not sound appropriately dignified, but the plant name is descriptive. Well except for the fact that is can also be Jill-in-the-Pulpit and only the "Jills" produce berries.  So I guess there were females in the pulpit a long time before mainline churches caught on. 

I came across these tiny fellas climbing out of their nest in the gravel beside the pond. Turtles dig holes in gravel or sand with their back legs and lay their eggs. It is amazing how far, and over what terrain they will travel to do this and many times they are close to roadways. This nest was less than a foot from passing traffic. These wee snappers were covered in sand and have no protection because their shell is too small to retract their head into. So cute peeking out of that hole, but so vulnerable. The next time I went by there was just a hole and shell casing.

A lovely feather caught on some foliage captured my attention. It was maybe 7 inches long with a lot of downy feathers at the quill end, and uniquely striped with white.  Clearly the rare skunk bird; well perhaps not. A search of The Feather Atlas revealed a match with the secondary feather pattern of the Hooded Merganser. Why would this single feather be at this particular spot on the path; a mystery.

While I was walking in the graveyard, not an unlikely spot to find me, I saw these fascinating nut pods. They are about an inch long, covered in prickles with hooked ends, separate into four sections, and have three or four triangular nuts inside. They belong to the Beech tree and are edible. When they are open they look like dried flowers.   

Having seen only cabbage butterflies all day I did not expect to have this gift of a Great Spangled Fritillary sighting in September. Not only was I able to capture the moment, but when I examined the photo, I noticed that the butterfly was having an antenna to antenna chat with an insect carrying a large load of pollen. In case, like me, you wondered what a "spangle" was, it refers to something sparkly, which is decorative, like a sequin. So I guess someone thought that the underwing was spangled with silvery spots. Being Canadian and not having any "spangled banners", perhaps we can be forgiven for not knowing this fact.

The forest is mostly green and brown right now; the canopy is only hinting at fall colours, and on the floor is the green of living foliage and the browns of dying foliage and seed pods. One of the few remaining wildflowers in bloom is the Pale Touch-me-not. I hadn't noticed its seed pods before and decided they looked like tiny cucumbers with their stripes. I thought that I would open a larger one and see what the seeds looked like. This is what happened;

the little pod came alive in my hand. The sides peeled back in strips and twisted around each other, and in the process the seeds were launched. It startled me, I have to admit, and thankfully I didn't launch the husk off into the woods at the same time before I had a chance to look at it. I hadn't given a lot of thought to the name of this plant, and I probably should have before I touched it. Turns out though, that this amazing method of seed dispersal is the reason for all the caution.

"Dame Nature is satisfied with small things"  -Marcus Tullius Cicero