210522 The Long Weekend, the Green Forest and a Travois.

 May 22

The green forest.

More violets - these are different, taller and with stems from which the leaves branch, rather than forming a crown from the root. White and yellow, although I think they are the same plant. 

    

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The long weekend: a weekend of Canadian rituals, with gardening first up: traditionally, now that the frost is behind us (we hope!), we plant our flowers and vegetable seedlings on this first holiday weekend. The nurseries are swarmed by people at the height of their gardening enthusiasm, although I hope many will put off this somewhat less-than-essential shopping for this year. Although I am a haphazard gardener, when I'm at home, I plunge in at this time of year, clearing fall debris, delighting in the returning perennials, trimming bushes and seeding the bald patches of lawn. Pre-pandemic, I took Indre to the nursery to find plants that she could take care of and we prepared a little garden for her. But once this flurry of green-thumb activity is past, I tend to let the garden take care of itself. No watering except new plants and the scarlet pimpernel by the front door (my pets), just mowing the grass as necessary, and keeping the burdock under control. 

Then there is the cottage crowd - May 24 weekend is often the first weekend of cottage life, opening it up, spring cleaning, putting docks in the water, getting the boat out. Then those tireless cottagers may even start the cottage gardening! 

Everywhere, with the sudden heat of a typical Canadian spring, (I was wearing my winter coat last week!) there are summer clothes on bare limbs, the first sunburn of the season, now mostly prevented by sunscreen, but a tradition when I was a child. The winter/summer clothing swap-over wraps up as the winter coats and sweaters get put away until the fall and the summer clothes are unearthed from basement wardrobes. Forgotten cotton frocks and bright t-shirts, flip-flops and sandals, muslin scarves and blouses, weightless, to protect skin from the sun: it is all unpacked, washed and hung ready for a delicious summer of outdoor living. 

For many, this weekend will bring the first barbeque which, pre-covid, would have been a family or neighbourhood party. This year it will likely be a quiet household dinner but with all the favorites. A cold beer or lemonade, in a deck chair on the lawn, will be a pleasure we can still enjoy. Out come the bicycles, wagons, bats and balls, skipping ropes; and the best thing about this weekend, if I was in Etobicoke, hanging the hammock in the back yard, under the umbrella of the maple tree. 

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Today we walked through a forest suddenly in full leaf with a floor of ferns almost fully open, some taller than our waists and already bearing their spores. The new canopy, though fully grown, is still a fragile paler green filtering the morning sun, while in midsummer the forest will be dark under the trees. Some of the spring rivulets are already dry for the summer, perhaps, or will they run again if we get heavy rains? 

According to the "Picture This" plant app, this is a common lady fern. I don't know whether the common refers to the "lady" or the "fern"!, but it is a quintessential fern , and certainly common.

Below: the sensitive fern.

Below, according to my app: the interrupted fern with its spores developing on one section of pinnae. 

This is that hairy alien-looking fern that sprang up early in the spring: a cinnamon fern. The tall brown spikes in the centre are its spores.

Here are some spores on the underside of last year's fronds of a fern I have not yet identified, though this year's fern is sprouting from the winter-flattened circle of last year's fronds.

This is a grove of hay-scented fern - the name will be easy to remember because it is growing out in the middle of the meadow with the grasses and hay.

This week I walked up the camp road behind the house to fetch a rock that I had seen earlier in the spring. It is not very ethical to move rocks and plants from their natural habitat, but since I was only bringing it down a few hundred metres from where the glacier left it I thought it wouldn't be so bad. It had already been moved off the road, as evidenced by the lack of dead leaves, lichen or moss on it. I found a forked branch to use as a travois, for which idea I give credit to the Jean Auel series Earth's Children, wherein the protagonist devises a travois to draw behind her horse.* I pulled the branch by the fork ends in a reversal of the usual travois, where the fork ends of the frame drag on the ground while two branches meet or cross on a pack animal's shoulders. It was an easy job then, to pull the stone down the road and through the meadow, the dragging point of the branch taking some of the weight without creating much drag.

Here is my travois with the rock.  To the right is the rock: unusual with its water-carved ripples and holes, more reminiscent of Huron limestone than the shale and boulders of the landscape here.

      

The sun is gone since noon and it threatens rain, with gusts of wind and dark skies from time to time. The weather channel suggests rain is more likely tomorrow, but somewhere today these clouds are going to pour down, I'm sure.

I am going to start dinner now. I have to grind up the black beans for hummus, soften the garlic in the microwave, and get the hummus in the fridge for a couple of hours to blend the flavours. There is still a platter of vegetables from Thursday's falafels with which to serve the hummus, and tortillas to wrap it all in. There's also some quinoa salad - I made a big bowl yesterday which will do us for two more meals. Another plant-based meal: we are edging closer to a vegan diet, but I am not sure if or when we will be completely vegan. It is a journey! 

Enjoy your weekend. I hope you can take time to be outside and smell the sunshine, the flowers and the green world. Summer will be here soon! Don't forget your sun hat!

Mumma Yaga

* Jean M. Auel, Earth's Children, a six book series, published 1980 through 2011, works of fiction but with the inclusion of botanical, paleontological and anthropological researched information: very interesting.

** https://sweetpeasandsaffron.com/black-bean-hummus/  This is a delicious hummus whether you are using black beans, chickpeas or any combination of beans. I prefer to use home-cooked beans, but sometimes I'll use canned beans on the spur of the moment. Totally allowed! I leave out the cumin because I don't much like it. It does need time to blend the flavours: it was much nicer the second day. I have only tried this one recipe from this website, so I can't vouch for the rest. Also I don't use any oil. If more liquid is needed, some bean broth or liquid from the can, or a little tomato juice will do just fine.