Dog strangulation vine

In Bilberry Creek ravine the summer moves on with one wave after another of wildflowers and ripening fruit presenting. We're well aware that these little evolving views of life ongoing escape the notice of most people. To begin with in comparison to the population in the community close to the ravine, very few people ever venture onto the trails to enjoy the quiet and peace of the landscape where an urban environment is suddenly transformed to reflect nature in its more authentically raw appearance.

We have accustomed ourselves to considering each of our forays into the ravine, as familiar as the routes have become over the years, as opportunities to view each turn in the trail as a unique and to us fascinating manifestation of natural seasonal progress.

Already, birds that visit the area as seasonal migrants are beginning to return south in early preparation for the onset of fall and eventually winter. Spring and summer are months of the year that are so transitorily swift in their passage, we're always taken by surprise tinged with real regret.

Jewel weed

Now, the apples on the wild apple trees are ripening and becoming sweeter. Over the years we've plucked them sporadically and taste-tested them. Now with Jack and Jill having familiarized themselves with what they consider to be edible treats to be had in the ravine, little bits of apple are given them where we encounter the trees. Jill in particular stops and waits expectantly, looking up eagerly at my husband, the giver-of-rare-treats.

On those parts of the trail meandering through the upper portions of the ravine, cherries have ripened on the wild cherry trees, goldenrod is beginning to flower, the staghorn sumacs are beginning to colour the landscape, the sunflowers are in full bloom, and the jewel weed colonizing the wet parts of the ravine have begun their bloom.

There's always something to see and appreciate at this mid-summer season, from an unusual shelf fungus, and the sudden pop-up mushroom colonies, to blooming yarrow, Queen Anne's lace, fleabane, and the bright red berries of red baneberry.

And to note that the appearance several years back of dog strangulation vine that once seemed such a pleasant novelty has morphed into a real infestation. The vines make their gradual appearance in ever-increasing numbers and they twine themselves swiftly around the stalks of shrubs and flower-bearing plants, up tree trunks and wherever they can find purchase to transform nature's garden into a chaotic-looking mess, their sheer weight on a plant, unlike cowvetch, bringing the plant prostrate to the ground.