The most colourful

November 17, 2024

 things in the woods today, other than me..

Yes, it is nearing the end of the two week rifle hunt for white tailed deer in Central Ontario. If one wants to wander the woods, they'd best wear blaze orange for safety. 

 This frozen mushroom was just lying in the middle of the trail, dropped from somewhere, by whom??

Here and there, protruding rocks are clothed in green moss.

Now I can see the fluttering flagging tape I tied near the spots where the morels grow in spring.

This oak leaf, alone and brilliant.

The colourful sheet of leaves that Mother Nature dropped, has now faded into a myriad of tan, brown and beige colours.

Even under the Hemlocks, there are enough deciduous trees to put a layer of leaves across the soil.

Hopefully she will soon be adding the white duvet of snow over the landscape.

The healthy size of the thorns on these Hawthorne bushes dotting old farm fields, makes one wonder why they evolved to this size, and what was nature protecting the bushes from?

Milkweed pods have dried and fluffed. Just touching these cause the little parachutes to float off on the faintest breeze.

This is a Eastern White Cedar log laying beside a trail, gleaming white in the sunshine.

A red squirrel has been shredding the bark while harvesting it to line his winter quarters. 

 The temperatures have been unusually mild over the last two weeks with just a couple of nippy days. We've only dropped the window on the Hot Frame for a couple of the cooler nights, and I still have lettuce growing under an old window in one of the raised beds. We have still not had a hard, killing frost, so I am able to harvest parsley and sage, although the deer have nibbled most of the parsley down to bare stems. There seems to be more, or bolder, deer around this year. We are discussing more serious measures for next spring, to protect the gardens.