Walks This Week

So far, two walks this week. One at my favorite, Whiting Road, on the Red Trail. The other was at Ganondagon, which is a state park, where the history and the lifestyle of the Seneca Indian is celebrated. That would have been a better walk if I hadn't gotten confused and thought that the service road was one of the trails. Oh well, I still saw some things, and got some power walking in.

Monday, on the Red Trail. The multiflora rose is in full bloom in some places. It's very beautiful, for an invasive. But, I know from my own experience around my place that, once it gets a foothold, it is almost impossible to eradicate.





Bird's foot Trefoil. I've always wondered what this is. It grows everywhere along the roadsides here.



Barren Strawberry



Budding Milkweed



Here are some portions of the path that I took. The Red Trail is mainly deep woods, but, I took an extension that I had not taken before and found that it lead through a different part of the Great Meadow.

Woods




Great Meadow




There are some parts of the path that you really have to be careful on. In some places, the roots of trees are right across the path.



And then, there are these evil steps. I wonder whose bright idea this was? The darn thing wobbles, and this fat old lady has already come to dread them. One of these days, I'm afraid I'm going to do a face plant off of them.



There are grasses everywhere that are full of pollen. Wonder why you're sneezing?




Then, there are these things that I am struggling to identify. This strangling vine really has me stumped. I know what it's not, but I can't figure out what it is.




This plant may be easier to identify when it come into bloom.



This shrub has the prettiest little yellowish cream flower, but, what it is, I don't know.



All in all, a lovely walk on a hot Memorial Day. There were a few more people there than normal, but everyone was very cheery and polite.

Yesterday, I had to take a quick trick to the track, to take more pictures of this lovely lady.



Hopefully, they are good enough so that the lady who is interested in her ends up buying her.

As I was out that way, I decided to walk a trail at Ganandagon. As I said, I got messed up and ended up walking on a service road. Duh! Oh well, still a pretty walk.

I got a lovely shot of an ox-eyed daisy.



And the yellow hawkweed was in bloom everywhere.



And, I found two more mystery shrubs. I'm having a really hard time identifying shrubs. But, these both had pretty flowers, and there were tons of them on this path.




That top one almost looks like some kind of lilac, doesn't it? But, the leaves are wrong.

And, I'll leave you with this shot of the authentic longhouse there. I wonder how warm they were in our cold, snowy winters?



Tomorrow -- Whiting Road, the Orange Trail -- The Great Meadow -- This is evolving into my favorite walk, but, this time, I'm remembering the sunscreen.

The Difference Between Males and Females

Another mallard pair showed up at the feeder yesterday. The reaction was typical.

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Yup, the boys fight over territory, while the girls cooperate and settle down to the important stuff like eating.

The New Garden

Besides taking a long trail walk last Friday, I also dug and planted a new garden. The two, combined, were a little too much for me, and I paid for it on Saturday at the track. But, I was really proud of myself, when the garden was finished.

Before I started, at about 8 AM.



Because this garden is right by the road, the dirt there was compacted, and full of road debris and salt. I thought it would be best to take that stuff right out and add new dirt. Here's what it looked like after I had all of the sod out. Let me tell you, that was hard work!



For the new dirt, I mixed two parts of topsoil with one part of composted cow manure. That should give the new plants plenty of encouragement to grow. It looked pretty good, after I got that new dirt in.



By then it was around noon, and it was HOT. I didn't want to put new plants in during that heat, and have the sun shine down on them all afternoon, so I left the gardening for a while, and went to Whiting Road to take my walk. It was a lovely walk, which I chronicled yesterday.




After supper, I went back out and did my planting. I had some of the plants from the Amish Nursery to put in there. I did suffer one disappointment, however. The False Spiraea was supposed to be the eye catcher in this planting. However, it was a big plant and when I started to dig a deep hole for it, no more than a couple of inches down, I hit stone and gravel from when they widened the road, and put the sewer in. I couldn't put the Spiraea there. So, I changed my plans. The Goatsbeard will eventually grow around three or four feet high, so I put that on one side, and I put a young Butterfly Bush on the other. In between, I put the English Daisies. I filled in, in front of those with some Sundrops and some blue flowers that I don't know the name of.




The sundrops always crack me up when I plant them. That year, you can't get them to stand up straight, and they wilt if you look at them crosseyed. But, the following year, there they are, straight and tall, and many more than what you had planted the year before. That's my kind of flower.

So, now comes the settling in period, and the growing period. This is another garden that will, hopefully, look much better next year. I think I did good!

Walks

I have decided that the walks at Whiting Road are going to be my exercise. Some of my friends do the "athletic walk" thing, round and round on a track. That's just not my cuppa. Too boring for me, though, they love it. So, to start at least, I am going to go on a trail walk every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. With the walking I do at the track on Saturday, that should help strengthen me up.

Last Wednesday, I did the Blue and Yellow Trails. There was lots of stuff to stop and take pictures of.

Fleabane



Elderberry



Canada Mayflower



Blackberry



I found where somebody had dined on fresh greens.



And saw a mass of baby spiders, getting ready to set out into the world.



The Blue and Yellow trails are probably the most popular of the trails there. They're the easiest, and go through different terrains. When you see vistas like this, I can see why people love to walk this trail.



Friday, I did the Orange trail. This is the trail that goes through the Great Meadow for a good part of its path. Bikers like this trail because it is quite long, and it has some grades. It doesn't seem to be so popular with walkers, maybe because you're out in the sun for a good portion of the time that you are walking.

The Hawkweed was out in force.

Yellow Hawkweed



Orange Hawkweed -- Not as common as the Yellow, and I only found a couple of patches.



Many Yellow Hawkweed.



There were flowers everywhere.

Creeping Buttercup



Multiflora Rose



Nightshade



And, this weird thing. I'm not even sure it's a flower. Every plant of its kind had this thing on top of it. It's not leafy feeling, but, rather, hard. So it's either a flower, or some kind of disease. If it is a flower, poor thing, to always have people wonder if you are a disease.



Here is a video of the Great Meadow itself





The Great Meadow used to be an orchard, and, along the perimeter, I found this remnant, still valiantly putting forth apples. I bet the deer love this tree in the fall.



The meadow is threatened by this plant -- Black Swallowwort. It's a plant that used to be planted in gardens at the turn of the 20th century. It escaped, and now represents a real problem. Unfortunately, it's practically impossible to eradicate.



Oh, and the spitbugs are flourishing.



Whiting Road is in an area that, long ago, was part of Lake Ontario, when it was much larger. So, the soil is very sandy. I'm including this picture because you can see that it can look exactly like beach sand.



I thought that this was kind of neat. These bushes only produce leaves at the top. Underneath, the horsetails have found just the shelter they need to survive in the Great Meadow.




But, the Orange trail isn't all through the meadow. It transitions quite abrubtly into woods. It's like walking from one world to another.




So, the last part of the journey is through cool, dark woods. Up and down a bit, also.




The Orange Trail is very long and I was pooped at the end. But, now really, isn't this better than walking around in circles?

Today, the Red Trail -- all deep woods.