September 18 – Cutting a swath

Awake to a foggy, foggy but sunny morning.  Chilly too, so I built a robust fire with a few of the logs we cut yesterday.  A little later, I joined Tim and Mum for a steaming cup of earl grey supreme and a thick slice of toasted bakery bread with golden clover honey.

 

Having decided that creating some strategically place paths will be one of the activities for the MFP, Mum, Tim and I head off toward the beaver pond.  Tim and I were armed with clippers and snippers to start work on access to the farther reaches of the pond.

Tim and I snipped and chopped our way through sharp-needled junipers, grasping blackberry bushes, many-branched maples and plenty of bushy bushes.  What was Mum doing as we sweated and whacked and snipped our way through the underbrush?  Well she was happily ensconced on a rock, yelling things like “it’s lovely here, why don’t you hurry up?” or, apparently thinking we were too doltish to find our way, she’d say  “you just go around the juniper and over the rock and …”.  When we finally cut the path right up to the beaver dam, there she was, just enjoying the view…

To give Mum credit, she was pretty impressed at our work when we returned along the path we had just cut.

So finally, I actually reached the beaver dam! 

Looks like Monet could have painted here…

After the sweat-making path work, we had to go back and rest.

After a nap, we tucked in to a clear-the-cupboard dinner of tuna hash, pasta and great lashings of wine – I’m going to have to stop hanging around these two – I go home half sloshed every night!

September 14 – The Turtle Pond! …I think

Did you know … that lichens are the dominant vegetation over 8% of the earth’s land surface

This morning is a bit overcast, sun and clouds – cool but not cold.  Took a short trek in search for mosses, lichens and fungus.  I headed off in the direction of a pond that Dad shows on his hand-drawn, half-burnt map.  I had never wandered over that way.

Could this be it?  This pond-like area is nestled between a rock wall and hidden in a

There appears to be 3 kinds of vegetation that completely dominate the pond – here they are;

 

Mermaid weed?

Any guesses on what these are?  Finding out will tell us if the Turtle pond is a SWAMP, a MARSH, a BOG or a FEN.

SWAMPS – are the most diverse type of wetland in Ontario; wooded wetlands, often flooded in spring and without surface water later in summer; dominated by trees and shrubs, coniferous trees (white cedar, tamarack, black spruce), deciduous trees (silver maple, red maple, black ash) and tall shrubs (willow, dogwood, alder). Water flows through swamps, although the movement can sometimes be imperceptible.

MARSHES – common throughout southern Ontario; periodically or permanently flooded with water; vegetation is mostly emergent non-woody plants (cattails, rushes, reeds, grasses, sedges); in open water, floating-leafed plants (water lilies) and submerged plants (coontail, pondweeds) are common; in drier areas, low shrubs (sweetgale, red osier dogwood, winterberry) may occur. They are a relatively productive wetland.

FEN – are rare in southern Ontario, common in Northern Ontario; peatlands located in areas where groundwater discharges to surface; vegetation mostly sedges and/or mosses, some grasses, reeds and low shrubs; less acidic than bogs; if trees present, they are usually stunted, scattered tamarack or white cedar; more plant species than in bogs.

BOG – are very rare in southern Ontario, common in Northern Ontario; peat-filled depressions; main source of water is rainfall, little surface runoff or groundwater from surrounding soils, strongly acidic; usually covered with a carpet of sphagnum mosses, some sedges, low shrubs of heath family (cranberries, blueberries); if trees present, usually black spruce and some tamarack.

Bogs may be very rare in Southern Ontario – but I think the Turtle Pond is a BOG!