Jack’s Walk

First trillium of the year

It’s only 4° today and and almost feels as if it could snow. Despite this shock to the system, the forest is starting to wake up. Our favorite park is actually a protected wildflower sanctuary and normally there are hundreds of trilliums by now. Today we found only one, but the ground cover is greening up and I’m sure more trilliums will show up soon. The forecast is for two more days of cold and then temperatures in the twenties. Now that will get the flowers growing.

©voyager, all rights reserved

C Is For Cockatiel and Caturra.

Cockatiel. Caturra, Portuguese for cockatiel.

This sweetie is my pet cockatiel, simultaneously a complete accident and the best thing to happen to me recently. An accident because I never planned to have a pet cockatiel. But when I realized that 1) her parents had stopped feeding her way to early and she was starving on the aviary’s floor and 2) no one but me seemed to care, I decided to do something about it and hand-fed her. She’s part of the family now.

Click for full size! What a beauty. She looks on the mischievous side.

© Nightjar, all rights reserved.

Jack’s Walk

©voyager, all rights reserved

We found a surprise in the woods this morning. The University of Guelph is doing a study of insect DNA across the country and they have installed a trap in our little forest. It’s pretty early in the season for bugs around here, but there was a lot of activity at the trap and more than a few already caught. I wonder how often they will come to collect? Our little forest is the smallest provincial park in Ontario and we often get overlooked. It’s a nice feeling to think that we’re a part of something important. It’s also nice because the path has been cleared so that Jack and I don’t need to scramble up and over anymore fallen trees.