Wild lily of the valley is like a carpet in a couple of areas at Green Timbers Park. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t have competition though.
Here’s some bracken fern poking through the lily carpet. Seems to be doing pretty well too.
If you look closely, you’ll notice the flower spikes on the lilies are soooo close to opening. Won’t be long now.
Green up is well on it’s way around here. The tree canopy is closing up and the forest is smelling new and fresh. Looking north across the lake at Green Timbers Park, you can see the different hues in the leaves of alder and cottonwood trees.
Most days you can hear the blackbirds calling in the marsh in the foreground. Oh yes, and the fishermen are lined up along the banks to the right and left of me as I took this shot.
Love it!
Another photo from my trip to Bear Creek Park the other day.
This red camellia flower looks like a setup, but I swear, I didn’t remove the petal for a better look. This flower was just there waiting for me…exposing itself.
Pretty.
When the sun came out this afternoon, I headed down to Bear Creek Park for a change. The park has a large garden filled with cultivated plants, and as expected, the gardeners had been hard at work.
Along with the usual pretty flower shots, I found this little fella (gal?). Seems part of it couldn’t decide whether it was a leaf or a petal, so it went half way to both 😉
Curious the way it leans over to the right, when the rest of the flower seems to be leaning a little to the left.
Well, after being laid low by an old war injury er…a back muscle spasm for a few days last week, and a quick Easter trip over to Vancouver Island, I finally got back to Green Timbers Park again.
I was particularly interested in how the Lily of the Valley was doing. Its small flower spikes have been present for some time, and the canopy above them is starting to close up with alder and cottonwood leaves. I was worried that I had missed the flowers, but no so. They are clearly on the verge of opening up, but, as luck would have it, it looks like they’ll need a few more days.
With the warmer temperatures lately, the northern black cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa) leaves are just starting to unfold. In the next few of weeks, their aroma will fill the air, followed by fluffy balls of their seed floating everywhere.
The cottonwood has quite a distinctive, fresh aroma, and for anyone living in valley bottoms, it’s a true confirmation of spring. It doesn’t get much better than sitting on the bank of a rushing river or stream with the smell of fresh green leaves in the air.
Boy, this little spring exercise in natural history has shown me how much biology I’ve forgotten. For 20+ years, I followed the nature quite closely, as the work was tied to the biology of plants and bugs. With more recent careers, not so much.
Nowadays, I have to dig a little deeper for the info I’m looking for. Truly a use it or lose it kind of thing, I guess. This spring has been a good reminder.
One of the things I do in my spare time is to act as a ‘roadie’ for a band called Circle of Friends. I help set up and pull down, as well as manage some of the sound mix while they are playing.
One of the recurring gigs is at the Bradner Flower Show in the Fraser Valley. We played there for 3-4 hours yesterday and today, and we had a ball.
Today they put some chairs out, and there was an group of seniors sitting in the front row tapping their feet, waving their arms and swaying to the music while they sang or just mouthed the words to many of the songs the band played.
Just as the band tried to take a break, they requested just a few more songs. Seems their bus was leaving in about 10 min, and they wouldn’t be there when we got back.
Heh, we obliged, and taunted them with some songs they might be familiar with. They loved it, and when we had to break, they ran up to the stage in a line, gave everyone a hug and a kiss and ran off again. Too funny, but really nice.
It’s random moments like that that we’ll remember for a long time…and it’s what makes performing at community events so rewarding.
It’s interesting to watch the plants in transition this spring. I haven’t had the time to do that for a while. In my life before, I spent each spring watching conifers ‘flower’ and produce cones. Out in the forest, you couldn’t help notice many of the other plants developing as well.
This photo is not the greatest, but it does illustrate part of the transition of salmonberry flowers to berries on the same twig. Apparently the shrubs can keep flowering for a long time, while the berries are ripening.
I’ll have to keep watching for a better shot. I’m learning to use my 105 mm lens, and depth of field seems to be a bit of a struggle for me right now. It’s coming though…
There are sections of the trail around Green Timbers Lake where the forest floor is covered by what I believe are Wild Lily of the Valley (with the ungodly name of Maianthemum dilatatum).
The flower buds are just starting to spike, and with the warm weather forecast for the next few days, I’m hoping for some serious blooming going on.
It should be quite a show.
Today there were a few Western Trillium (Trillium ovatum) blooming on the forest floor at Green Timbers Park in SurreyBC. I thought the Lily of the Valley would be first, but these Trillium surprised me. Pleasantly.
Beautiful little flowers, grabbing as much sun as they can before the canopy fills in overhead.
donsca 