Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Thursday’s Thoughts #11.
Good morning on this smokey Thursday! The sun is shining however and it’s supposed to be a nice day, not too hot, just in the nice range. It’s going to be hot the next few days though, and dry, no rain in the forecast for the next few days anyway. The fire that was close to us is officially out now, plus many other small fires. However, many more fires have started so there are now 97 forest fires burning this morning. The largest is now 260,000 acres, another is 207,000 acres and several more are in the 100,000 to 150,000 acre size. Some of these fires are moving at a rate of 130 feet (40 meters) every minute.
That’s fast. Our province has declared NW Ontario, that’s this area, a state of emergency due to the fires. Three communities are evacuating right now, a fourth, a town of 4100, has told it’s citizens to be ready to evacuate. Right now the closest fires to us are about 25 miles away, and they are new fires, 4 of them, so they are still small. Hopefully we don’t get a strong wind come along, that would be bad. Slim is out here being bad again this morning. Although at the moment he is picking walnuts. That walnut tree out back isn’t very big, but it sure produced a lot of walnuts this year. The walnut tree in my landlord’s yard is bigger and it produces buckets full of walnuts every year.
The squirrels love those things, even more than peanuts. Perhaps nuts have more nutrients than peanuts. Sometimes people think that peanuts are nuts, but they’re not. Peanuts are legumes, like peas and beans. Simply put, nuts grow on trees. But then there are differences also, such as Brazil nuts, which are not nuts, technically they are seeds, not nuts, they grow in a large pod like a coconut and there are several of these seeds inside. Kind of like pine cones, inside are seeds. Anyway, peanuts are not nuts. I’m late again, had to go out early this morning to pick up my medication at the pharmacy.
Then stopped at a local park to take some pictures. It’s a small park, but so nice and quiet there, great spot for a picnic. While taking pics of flowers I found myself surrounded by bumble bees so I got busy taking pics of them for a while. One almost landed on my hand and I was ready to get a picture but he suddenly changed his mind and went back to the flowers. It would be cool to get a pic of one on my hand…as long as she doesn’t sting me. That can hurt. I have been stung 3 times this year so far, the only other time I have been stung is when I was a little kid. The crazy things I do sometimes to get pictures. Oh well. I hope you all have a wonderful day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Steve And Muffin’s Wildflowers #45.
Hi everyone! Today’s wildflower is the “white wild onion”. I was actually very surprised to see this one yesterday since this is more of a western species and not listed as being in our area. This is also the first time I have ever seen this species, so it was quite exciting for me. We do have another species of wild onion which I will try to get a picture of soon and talk about it too. Anyway, this is a native wildflower that likes full sun and dry sandy or rocky soil. These onions, about 50 of them were on a granite hillside with very little soil. They do have an onion smell when the stem is broken and from the bulbs, which are usually 2 or 3 small bulbs. Apparently all parts of the wild onion are edible but the stems can be dry and woody. Care must be taken however, if there is no onion smell, don’t eat it. They grow up to 10 inches (25cm) tall with flower clusters that are 1 to 2 inches (2.5 to 5cm) across. They generally bloom in May and June, though these are blooming nicely, with lots more to come, in mid July. In Canada they can be found in our 3 prairie provinces, plus obviously here in NW Ontario. In the US they can be found from Minnesota to Oklahoma and west but not including California or Oregon. Have a wonderful day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 