After a brief setback in the weather (SNOW the other day, hmpht) we're back to spring conditions.

Today dawned bright and clear so I set off to Beechwood.

High time to make a start on the garlic mustard:

The ants haven't warmed up enough yet to be a problem, but I turned over a brick and found one of their secret hideaways:

Another lurker:

I also discovered a few more pieces for my potsherd collection:

Today's harvest:

An inspector came along to check my work:

Yesterday was the first day I noticed bugs in the pond, too, both underwater and skating on the surface. Everything's gearing up for another busy summer.

Spring! While a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love, the pussywillows are turning to catkins:

Last year's cattails have turned to fluffy souvlaki:

I've been trying for days to get a decent picture of these fresh new tamarack needles. Turns out, the trick is to hold your umbrella behind them:

The weather has turned freakishly warm again and everyone has hurried outside to take advantage of the sunshine and the holiday weekend. It seemed like as Good a Friday as any to launch the guerrilla stewardship season at Beechwood, so I brought in my little container of necessaries to leave in the equipment box. Now I'm well supplied with work gloves, trowels, buckets, garbage bags, sunscreen, and a few First Aid items. I need a new can of bug spray, but I should be all right for now.

I was hoping for some really interesting stuff lurking inside the box when I opened it for the first time, but there were only a couple of these flat grey spiders:

After I stowed my gear I spent some time picking up bottles, cans and garbage. I startled a rabbit (who didn't seem to be carrying colourful eggs) and came across some coltsfoot getting started:

Fungus is always intriguing:

There are cardinals everywhere, not that I'm complaining:

Arriving home again I found a reward waiting, courtesy of a friend:

Happy hot cross buns! Happy Easter!

People I talk to insist we'll get more snow before we're done this (non-)winter, but they're just being grumpy. I saw a robin and some redwinged blackbirds today and that's all the proof I need that we've turned the corner. There's just a thin skin of ice left on the pond:




Things are beginning to look alive again ...




... including garlic mustard. I don't know how it dares show its face here after all the hard work that's been done to eradicate it, but there you go:





I think this must have been a very neat rabbit:





As for this, wow. I don't even want to know:




Finally, Don Watcher posted a picture of an "inukshuk" so I thought I'd counter with the Beechwood version:

Happy spring, and stay tuned for a new season of Beechwood reports, beginning soon!

I'm sorting through some photos from last fall and over the winter. Here's a selection:

Freeze-dried mud:

Varieties of fungus:

If I get bored with my regular tasks at Beechwood this year I might try a little art project.

This just in: more good ideas for my spare time.

Hm, interesting. I ran this blog through GenderAnalyzer and it guessed that I'm a woman, but it was only 54% sure, declaring my writing "quite gender neutral." I wonder which words tipped the balance in my womanly favour?

Happy Year of the Tiger!



(Rare guest appearance by Jaffa.)

Happy Valentine's Day as well. In honour of the holidays I thought I'd do a photography challenge. I was afraid hearts and cupids would be a bit thin on the ground around Beechwood so I decided to search for evidence of tigers.

Not many people have seen the elusive Don Valley tigers, but it's simply a matter of recognizing the subtle signs they leave behind. You may find a bit of tiger fur caught in a tree:




Sometimes you'll see the markings tigers leave around their territory:




I wonder what mysterious messages they're sending to other tigers?




Giant tiger paw-prints are a good indication you're looking in the right place:




A good tracker would immediately spot these tiger droppings on the ground:




Here we see the remains of the fierce predator's meal:




Finally, we are rewarded with a glimpse of those striking orange stripes!




Inching ever closer, we find the tiger cleverly concealed in the undergrowth, barely visible to the human eye:

Don't get too close! Danger!

Tigers. They're everywhere.

This morning I was all psyched to have a nice walk to Beechwood and take pictures in the winter sunlight. I took a few shots of the ice-fringed rocks in the river, and spotted this male bufflehead all by himself below the weir:

Just as a pair of downy woodpeckers started tapping away at a nearby tree, I discovered my camera batteries had died. Unhappy blogger! I carried on to Beechwood, afraid that deer and foxes would appear around every corner to mock me, but my only company was one of the woodpeckers who came along to see what I was up to. Better luck next time.