You Grow Girl™

We took a short trip outside the city over the Canada Day long weekend to go visit a friend. Of course I took tons of photos. I brought three cameras. Two are film requiring developing so of course it will be two years before I see those.

On our last day in St. Catharines, before leaving for the train station, we made a short trip out to Short Hills Conservation Area to see some nature. It was (and still is) so unbelievably hot, I thought going to a forest area would be a good idea to get some shade and actual oxygenated air into our lungs. Plus I had never been to Short Hills at this time of year and was curious to see what it looked like and what was growing.

Upon entering the path, the first thing that struck me was a strong garlic smell in the air. There was obviously wild garlic growing but we couldn't see any! The sides of the paths were so thick with wildflowers that we couldn't really walk into it to look closer. Blackberry vines were also littering the areas off the path, making for a very scratchy, impenetrable area. Sadly very few berries were actually ripe yet.

After a short walk through the forest we came to a grassy field that was also overflowing with wildflowers in bloom. Thistles were just forming, and plants such as alfalfa and black-eyed Susan were in full bloom. My sockless legs and ankles were lashed to bits by scratchy, course grass stalks.

The next area was all wooded. Our destination was a waterfall but sadly the river was dried up and there was no waterfall. As I was posing for some tourist shots, I noticed a large, black ant making its way along the edge of the railing towards me. Apparently my little encounter with the ants in High Park has created a bit of an ant-phobia. I'm not afraid of ants -- just cautious.

I don't really have much else to report. We were in the forest less then an hour. But I did see some snails, strange looking red things on a leaf (some kind of disease?), butterflies, moths and some flowerless columbine. I looked really hard on the way out but I still couldn't find that garlic. It stank the place up (I originally thought one of my companions had eaten alot of garlic for lunch), yet it remained elusive.