Friday, October 03, 2008

Calm after the storm

Autumn is certainly here with us. Starting late yesterday afternoon the wind picked up and the rain fell in heavy torrents. It continued through the night. It was quite a surprise then, to see the sun breaking through this morning.

Since by last night I had completed the sermon preparation for tomorrow, I was able to take time out to go wander about in the muskeg. Even though the landscape here doesn’t get the spectacular colors of say, Vermont, as you can see from the photos, we do get color. The color is much on a much smaller scale. What I noticed most is how the dying tufts of grass seem to glow orange against the more drab colors of the already dead plants.

I found what I’m pretty sure are bog cranberries. I picked one, squeezed it, and it had a familiar scent to it. The taste resembles a cranberry – quite tart. I hope it was a cranberry… I’m pretty sure it wasn’t one of the toxic, red berries that the field guides warn about. At least I’m still feeling fine a couple hours later… :)

I also noticed quite a few mushrooms poking their caps up. I don’t think I saw quite as many during the spring and summer months.

Winter is not too far away. One weather forecast says we might see our first snow flurries in about a week.

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