Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Tuesday’s Tails #5.
Good morning everyone! And Happy June! The start of a new month, and the first month of summer. Here our summer runs from June 1st to August 31st, on a good year. It can be much shorter since June is often a rather cool and rainy month and certainly doesn’t feel like a summer month. And summer normally ends about mid August. It is a beautiful morning, probably our warmest morning yet this year and going up to 77F (25C) for a high today and mainly sunny. Very nice indeed.
But it’s getting warmer, by Friday we should be in the mid 90s (F), 35C. Not a bad way to start off our summer. And the sun now shines for 16 hours a day, but it’s daylight for about 18.5 hours a day. That will increase a bit more yet by the third week of June. I will admit, I do enjoy all that daylight. There are those living much further north who get even more sunlight than we do during the summer, but they also get a lot less in the winter. I couldn’t handle that.
Anyway, it’s a beautiful sunny morning. The vireos have returned now, I actually got a picture of one yesterday on my walk down to the river. It was a fantastic walk yesterday, and I went further than normal, which I am feeling today. But it was great anyway, such a beautiful day for a walk, just a light breeze and sunshine. And the forest was full of birds singing all around me as I walked. I also got a nice picture of a warbler finally! That was so nice. It may not be an excellent picture, but it’s still a good one. I will show both of these birds this week.
I also got a really nice picture of Scramble. He’s my friendly squirrel along the path to the river. But he is a bit camera shy, so getting his picture isn’t easy. If I was down there more often, I’m sure he would be sitting on my shoulder by now. It is so beautiful along the river path now, with all the leaves out, flowers blooming, everything growing so nicely and the trees alive with birds of all sizes. I still haven’t seen or heard any thrushes though which is certainly very odd. I did get to see a marsh bluet yesterday which was a bit of a surprise, I didn’t think they would be out this early. Time for more coffee on the deck. I hope you all have a wonderful day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Steve And Muffin’s Wildflowers #16.
Hi everyone and Happy June! Today’s wildflower is the “three-toothed cinquefoil”. This is a small wildflower, half an inch (about 12mm) across. It is a very bright white with 5 petals that are often wrinkled and bend downward when fully open. It is a member of the rose family and really quite showy for a small flower. The leaves are evergreen, meaning they stay attached to the plant year round, but do turn a burgundy red in fall. The leaves have a 3 toothed design at the end. They grow if very poor, dry, sandy soil where there is little competition from other plants. They also prefer full sun and are usually associated with jack pine forests. In Canada they can be found from Alberta through to the east coast. In the US they can be found from ND to Maine and south to Georgia, though missing a few states in that area. It’s main blooming time is June and July. Have a wonderful day everyone and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 