Faces in the Forest

There are watchers in the woods. 

I saw this eye drawn on a piece of birch bark that was impaled on a couple small branches. It looked over a trail Baloo and I take through a favorite hemlock forest.

A little later on our walk, we were surprised by this face on a pine tree right at the edge of the trail. Someone had drawn eyes on the two upper trimmed branches and had even put pine needle eyelashes on them (look closely and you may be able to see them). They put two shelf fungus on a stick leaning up against the trunk to make the mouth, just below the nose branch (complete with nostrils drawn in). 

Of course, by that time, I was seeing faces everywhere - even ones that weren't aided by human hands. I sort of liked this craggy character.

Not Such Ugly Ducklings

There's a large, shallow pond (lake?) on the way to one of Baloo's favorite walking trails where we sometimes peek through the trees to see who might be out on the water. 

On this occasion, a pair of swans were grazing lazily with their brood of cygnets. They weren't too perturbed by our approach - they simply swam to the edge of the water where they felt safe with the distance and the cover. That made it tough to get good pictures, of course, but I tried!

The little ones stayed in the middle, flanked by their parents.

I took advantage of the photographic opportunity when one finally turned around to face us. Not ugly at all, right? Pretty cute, really. 

A Whiter Shade

A couple days ago, I shared two of my mother's favorite flowers and I warned that there were other blossoms along the way that, although they were neither pink nor my mother's favorites, I would post another day.  Here are two that were showing their stuff that same evening.

The Canada Mayflower looks a bit like a tiny fireworks display with its cluster of starburst shaped blooms.

The starflower comes by its name honestly.  The petals form little six-pointed star shapes against a background of much larger leaf whorls that set off the white of the flower very dramatically.

Small flowers seem to keep capturing my attention as I wander around with Baloo. Their different shapes and growth habits are a continuing source of wonder. Yes, I know, I am easily entertained - this is not necessarily a bad thing....

Foggy, Foggy Brew

Imagine, if you will, a beautiful late Spring day with a few puffy thunderheads piling up along the horizon, but otherwise sunny skies.

A perfect day for sailing (or hiking with Baloo, in my case).

Oddly, as we were walking along, the forest suddenly filled with a grayish smokiness. I couldn't smell any fire and the temperature was dropping, so I didn't worry about it - just enjoyed the odd effect of the trees getting all soft in the misty air.

When we emerged from the woods and wound our way back toward home, there was a cloud rolling right down the middle of the road. Cars were suddenly appearing out of a dense fog and outrunning the cloud that finally enveloped us as it blew south.

As I drove along with the mist, I could see another strip of fog over the bay. So, I drove to the scenic overlook to see what it might look like from there.

It is hard to describe the effect and the pictures don't begin to do it justice, but you can see that the sky is a lovely expanse of blue and the only cloud runs right down the middle of the bay with clear sailing on either side. The island was partially shrouded in mist, too, but not completely. Very eerie and beautiful.

Lots of other people stopped at the overlook to admire the view, too!

Happy Anniversary Celebration!

As amazing as it is to imagine, Baloo and I are celebrating our fourth anniversary together. It was on this day, just after I got off work on a Friday afternoon, when the folks from Second Chance called me with an emergency request to foster a dog that would otherwise be 15 minutes from its final walk down the hall at the Humane Society. I could not possibly refuse. 

Enter Baloo! I wasn't sure I would be able to handle him when he arrived at my house an hour or so later, having taken three people, forty minutes, a cup of peanut butter and a muzzle to get him into the car to transport him.

By the time he got over heartworms, neutering, near starvation, fear of getting into cars and a few other issues, we'd become bonded and he'd completely wiggled his little way into my heart. So, he became my "foster failure" - I adopted him, myself.

There have been a few health scares with him since the early days, too, but he's doing so well now (quick! where's some wood to knock on??).

I took these pictures of him yesterday afternoon toward the end of our afternoon outing. There were some lovely spirea blooms and iris to set off his furry little self. He caught a sniff of something interesting just as I snapped this picture - there's a little blur on the muzzle, but that's just who he is. He sees the world through his nose! I enrolled him in Darwin's Dogs and they think he'd be a good tracking dog and I totally agree.

So, we're celebrating our anniversary all day today. He's getting a bone that I filled with turkey and rice and put into the freezer so that it will provide both treat and entertainment. We'll find nice walks to take and games to play (so, yep, pretty much like most other days...). See? We're a perfect match - I'm just as silly as he is!

In the Pink

On that same evening walk Baloo and I took the other day, I found myself thinking about my mother. Two of her favorite wildflowers were blooming and she would have been delighted to meander along the trails to admire them.

The pink lady's slipper is very fussy about where it grows, so anywhere that it can flourish is automatically pretty special in my book. I probably should have gotten a close up of the flower, itself.  Hmmm...  Maybe we will have to go back and remedy that oversight.  Oh, darn!  Another nature walk to take - poor me.

The fringed polygala may be a tiny little flower, but it is so unusual it doesn't need size to stand out as the beauty it is.

More lovely spring flowers were blooming along the trails and I took some pictures of them, too, but they weren't pink. I'll just have to save them for another day.

Red Wings

Baloo and I took an evening walk to a spot where we could stop and look out over a protected wetland area and watch for movement in the bushes and trees around us (more pictures from the outing to come...).

There was a pair of red winged blackbirds feeding and preening in the sunset light.  You can easily see the red patch on the male's shoulder, even though it is partly obscured by the foliage.

His mate is not quite as colorful, but she's quite as striking in her own more subtle style. She prefers the neutral shades to the showier ones.

So, why did I choose to highlight these not so terribly exotic birds with pictures that were taken at dusk, so they're not as clear as they could be? Because, I got lucky and happened to capture an image of the male as he took flight toward his lady love. Isn't he magnificent?

The whole walk and evening's observation topped off a lovely day - Baloo thought so, too, as he sat quietly and listened to the sounds of singing frogs and other interesting creatures.