Wilderness on our doorstep

I have been so busy trying to get some pictures on this blog (no easy feat for me).And just now I was working in my garden. I step around the house and I disturbed some kind of get together. A Robin hurriedly flew away and a coyote with a dark spot on its tail trotted off. That did it for me I had to write a new post, I am 4 days behind.The Wilderness is so close by.

My young friend Pelly Braun taught me that again on Wednesday the 28th. He and I went to the 911 pond.I was going to bike half way around the pond to see the swan sitting on its nest .Really with binoculars we could already see that quite well. Biking to the marsh grass he asked if he could stop here to look for Bison hair. And sure enough he found a tuft of hair in the grass. After a while we went back to where we came out on the meadow. We found a nice spot to have a snack ,where I could watch all the birds with my binoculars. There is more then one Red-winged Blackbird, as these are new to me, I love them now. Now busy with their nest they make a neat sound. Pelly finds treasures right there on the spot; the grass is also full of spiders.

The next two days I am in Whitehorse. On Thursday Mary Whitley takes me out to paddy's pond,which is right on her doorstep. It's a beautiful spot. And it actually shows how wilderness moves right in if we let it. This pond apparently was a hole dug to build the subdivision some 30 years ago. We walk to a spruce forest, we walk on what was originally a fire break but now there's lovely small spruces growing.Mary recognizes the different birds by song. We come to a stop where the pond is flowing over on the path. That's perfect, the bushes are full of ...warblers. And through the willows we can see the pond. I didn't write it down but I think we saw; a Northern Shoveler pair, two male Mallards, An American Wigean I believe. But definitely we saw a beautiful Grebe.Mary knows which one.

Friday I climbed onto the clay cliffs behind a ball diamond? I had to find my son and a friend bike-jumping, in this incredible area. You can definitely see that people 'play' in this place. But there is no garbage laying around. And the wildness is very much there. As this area was shaped by the river. I walk on a bike track that is on a clay ridge, steep on both sides, There's wild Sage growing and an Oxytropis and a Mustard (Draba or Arabis?) are blooming. Close to the city and so.... awesome.

This weekend was spent close to home. With friends we went to the 'horse meadows'. And we did see the horses,They are maybe not wild , but sure look it. With their shinning coats they come running toward us.All this in a totally stunning setting. Meadows interspersed with bushes, clay cliffs, ponds, all surrounded by the white streaked mountains.

To finish of ,wilderness on our doorstep, I like to mention a little garden that I have beside the front entry.It's a square meter. And totally my favorite. Years ago I transplanted a High bush Cranberry here from....?It came with a clump of forest soil. Now it's an astonishing arrangement. (I do pull out things every year that might take over). A head ache is building up. I finish of to say that in this little wild place the Moehringia lateriflora is the first to bloom. She's maybe ordinary and small ,but delicately definitely elegant.