Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Thursday’s Thoughts #14.
Good Thursday morning to everyone! It’s cloudy and a bit damp this morning. We had a couple of light showers overnight, not even enough rain to really measure though. Light showers evaporate before they even touch those fires. But it does help to dampen the forest around them so the fires move more slowly at least. The biggest fire, now at 488,154 acres, gained 14,000 acres yesterday. The next largest gained 13,000 acres and is now 409,900 acres. Both of these fires burn partly within one of our most beautiful wilderness parks, along with 3 other fires.
The park is about 1.2 million acres in size and it would appear about 400,000 acres has burned so far, it could be as much as 500,000 acres. This park (Woodland Caribou Provincial Park) is part of a large UNESCO world heritage site. I have never been to this park as access is limited mainly to fly in, or a long canoe route. But such wilderness beauty can be found all through this area. Another of our provincial parks has 9 fires burning in it’s boundaries, but they are much smaller fires and it is a larger park.
It has been fairly quiet out here this morning, except for the chipmunks racing back and forth. It almost seems like they are having a contest to see who can carry off the most peanuts in the shortest time. When I put out the first cup of peanuts, there were 5 little chipmunk heads poke out of 5 boxes in a row, and those heads came out all at the same time. I think they just sit under those boxes waiting for me to toss out more peanuts. It did look rather cute though to see those 5 heads poke out at the same time. Yesterday a family of chickadees was around most of the day, so I put out some sunflower seeds for them, and they came down for them right away.
Even a male goldfinch found them and stopped by for a while. And the family of white-throated sparrows was here most of the day as well. But this morning it’s quiet, even the gulls didn’t show up for breakfast as usual, except for Ricky. I think he was happy there was no competition for the food this morning and he certainly stuffed as much into himself as he could. It’s starting to get dark out there again, maybe some more rain is coming. And I have to get my garbage out to the street for pick up. I’m sure the chipmunks are ready for some more peanuts too. I hope you all have a great day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Steve And Muffin’s Wildflowers #57.
Hello everyone and welcome back! Today’s wildflower is the “American Vetch”, also called the “Purple Vetch”. These are members of the pea family and are a native wildflower that will grow in sun or partial shady areas in fields, open woods and along roads. Individual flowers are 1/2 to 3/4 inch (12 to 18mm) long and there are usually 2 to 9 flowers in loose clusters. They bloom from May to September and will grow much like a vine up to 3 feet (90cm) long. They can be found across Canada except in the east coast provinces, and in the US except the far northeast states and the southeast states. Have a great day everyone and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 