Mast Year

It seems to be a mast year for the Northern White-cedars (thuja occidentalis) growing around the pond this year. The seed pods are so numerous that they are weighing down the branches.

Mast year:    A mast year is a year when many trees of the same species produce an exceptionally large seed crop, often 10 to 50 times their normal output, all at the same time across a region.

A mast year is defined by two key features:  1. Huge seed production far above normal levels.  2. Synchronized timing across large populations of trees.

Anyone else seeing large crops of seeds on cedars?

Benched

The annual "Art in the Park" event was held over the weekend, and of course I love to see what treasures are created by the local arts community. It was a sunny day, just the right amount of cooling breezes. 300 booths were set up under the trees showing off paintings, photography, pottery, fabric arts, sculpture... you name it! I'm trying to declutter at home, so I definitely didn't need to buy anything although I was sorely tempted when I saw some beautiful applewood hand carved spoons. But I resisted.

My only purchase was an ice cream cone.

However I saw this beauty in the park.

View from the front. Dragonflies, butterfly, humming birds, even a little kitty.

View from the back. No indication who made it, but I love it!

Meanwhile, my giant sunflower (see previous post) seems to be taking a sudden U-turn towards the sun.

Sunflower

Back in May I found a tiny sunflower seedling had established itself in an abandoned flower pot, so I rescued it and transplanted it into my flower garden. Probably a single seed buried by treerats, er... squirrels, of which we have far too many.

Well, it grew and grew and grew. And it's still growing. Just how tall will it get?

A stormy day blew one of the sunflower heads against my window, so I could easily see the details of the spiral arrangement of the seeds. The Fibonacci Sequence.... a.k.a. Nature's Golden Ratio.

This visitor to my sunflower wasn't at all concerned about the spiral of the seeds, he (or she) was concentrating on a shopping trip to collect nectar and pollen. 

Snow plow

This giant railway snow plow (or snow plough if you prefer) is parked on a rusty railway track in the back field at Markham Museum. It's huge! It's almost covered with overgrown branches and gradually rusting away.

According to Wikipedia this is a Wedge Plow. The wedge plow forces snow to the sides of the tracks and therefore requires a large amount of force due to the compression of snow.

Wedge Plow in better shape connected in front of the main engine, photo borrowed from internet

I tried to find out more information from the museum web site but nothing available.

Heron

Every evening he comes swooping in and lands gracefully on the grass at the edge of the pond. Sometimes he arrives for breakfast too.

The Great Blue Heron. There must be enough delicious little morsels of fishdom in the pond to keep him returning for his dinner every evening. He stands in the water, eyes concentrating on any movement under the surface, beak poised to attack, and suddenly he stabs the water, and he's caught a tiny wiggling fish. Gulp! That was yummy!

I wonder how many wiggling tiny fish it takes to fill a heron's tummy?

Vision

 Don't look over your shoulder, but you are being watched.

Wildflowers

Younger son had a crazy idea to start a wildflower patch in the meadow beside the house. 

You can see his first attempts here.

This year produced a bumper crop of Black Eyed Susans and blue and pink Cornflowers. Red Poppies too... but they flowered earlier in the spring.

The flower patches are full of bees and butterflies and little green grasshoppers. It's really buzzing! A third area of the meadow has been tarped to kill all the grass and it will be ploughed and rye will be planted, and then cut, and the wild flower seeds will go in. 

And this area by the little stream has been planted with Milkweed especially for the Monarch butterflies.