The forest never stops revealing itself to us as year after year, season after season we are confronted with its living green presence, a habitat for small furred creatures and winged residents and visitors, the aquatic life that proliferates in its valleyed creek and insects that live within its precincts.

Fleabane

 

It is a mixed forest of deciduous and conifers. Hackberry, Fir, Apple, Poplar, Yew, Oak, Cedar, Pine, Spruce, Maple, Beech, Ash and more. An understory of dogwood, spirea, hazelnut and much more.

Various types of fern and plants like false Solomon's Seal and Red Baneberry comprise the bracken on the forest floor along with all the woodland flowers that seasonally proclaim their presence from the earliest coltsfoot in the spring to the latest fall asters.

Fungi on a decaying tree trunk

It is a place of happy discovery, an environment where we feel free to enjoy nature at our leisure. And our leisure comprises the physical aspect of hiking the various interconnected trails in all seasons from spring to summer, fall to winter, where the forest takes on its various complexions reflecting atmospheric modifications reflected in those seasons.

Emerging Hazelnut

It is a mosaic of colour in the fall, presenting scenes that swoon the senses. And in the spring when fresh thrusts of perennial plants are finally encouraged to emerge from their winter sleep it is a time of excited adventure for us. Familiar we may be through long exposure to those seasons in the woods, but we cannot help but greet all the denizens, flora and fauna, with expressions of wonder and joy at their reappearance.

Cowvetch

We, and the other regulars who make it a point to daily tramp the woods, as we do. There is a large community surrounding the Bilberry Creek Ravine forest, and of that multitude of tens of thousands of people, a mere handful see the value in regular communication with nature. A situation that we wonder at, and at the same time don't really mind, since when we're there and seldom see other people, we have the impression that this is our personal, private preserve.

Cinquefoil

And so, as it happens, do our two little companion dogs.