23 June

 

As the poem says, "What is so rare as a day in June?"  The east coast of Vancouver Island doesn't seem to have read the next line about "perfect days."*  Our most recent visit to the Wetlands and Forest was fine, rich in new flowers and emerging fruit, but still chilly and cloudy.

Nevertheless, as ever, the path welcomed us.

We're seeing an increase in the growth of cascara--partly this is our ability to recognise the tree,

 but in part it's plainly due to new plants establishing themselves.

Its proliferation may be due to developments in modern pharmacology.  In the early years of the twentieth century, cascara was in demand as a laxative, not least to remedy the diet of stodge fed the military in the two world wars.  Harvesting cascara bark was a popular source of income for people on Vancouver Island, where the tree grew.  Unfortunately, this resulted in fewer trees throughout the forests.   But now, apart from adherents of folk medicine, it has ceased to be a popular remedy and the trees seem to be regenerating.   It's an interesting case of the relationship of human digestion, pharmacology,  and forestry.  

The bird population seemed quieter this morning.  We heard ravens, Pacific wrens, and blackbirds, song sparrows, and yellowthroats and red-winged blackbirds at the marsh.  Birds weren't visible, though. There was, however, a very big and robust banana slug on the path.

The foam flower is flourishing. (Say rapidly six times...)

Actual blossoms on bedstraw seem uncommon.  These tiny examples are among the first I've seen, despite the abundance of the plant.

Elder flowers have become elderberries, but birds have found them before they ripen.

A nurse stump is nurturing a tiny pair of buttercups.

Trillium finished blooming some time back and are now showing the result of pollination.

New fungi, including this cluster of puffballs, are appearing.

The Marsh is a brilliant green with the growth of bog bean and sedge.

At its borders,  bright spikes of blossom are appearing on the spirea.

Two very distinct and unrelated types of hemlock can be found in North America.   Both can be found in the Forest and Wetlands.  The conifer is infrequent in the Forest--most visible along the loop that opens to the side of the main path. 

The poison hemlock, introduced from Europe--the last substance that Socrates ingested--grows in the marsh.  It's quite lovely, but definitely lethal.

We made our way out of the Forest, past salal that is blooming and starting to form fruit.

We shall look forward to watch the advancement of summer in the coming weeks.

*And what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days;
Then Heaven tries the earth if it be in tune,

And over it softly her warm ear lays:
Whether we look, or whether we listen,
We hear life murmur, or see it glisten;
Every clod feels a stir of might,
     An instinct within it that reaches and towers,
And, groping blindly above it for light,
     Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers;
The flush of life may well be seen
     Thrilling back over hills and valleys;
The cowslip startles in meadows green,
     The buttercup catches the sun in its chalice,
And there's never a leaf nor a blade too mean
     To be some happy creature's palace;

--from James Russell Lowell, The Vision of Sir Launfal