Wild Child

Do you see what I see? 

Where I live, all the lawns look very much like the one pictured above: shots of green mingle with patches of dry dead growth at the yards slowly awaken to the gradual strokes of heat the occasional sunny day brings.  And nestled tightly amongst the blades of grass lies these...

The ephemeral blooms at their peak

deeply vivid, intensely fragrant wild violets.  So sweet and powerfully scented, as only an uncultivated flower can be, these clusters can be found in the old established neighbourhoods of our town. As a child each spring without fail, I picked handfuls to bring home, placing them carefully in tiny crystal glasses that graced our kitchen windowsill.  I can't tell you how thrilled I was to discover, a couple of years of ago, masses growing in our side lawn.  It was the unmistakable scent that wafted over our garden wall one sunny spring day that brought them to my attention.  We've left them spread, unchecked, on their way to a glorious carpet.  Spring has finally arrived. 

Photos D. Sleziak

Spring Fling

The promise of spring: swollen magnolia buds nearly ready to explode in profusion

In My World: The Garden

 

While the days are growing longer, the warming heat of early spring has evaded us.  There are few signs of true spring -- no flowering forsythia, no crocus in the garden, no daffodils pushing their stalks up to sky.  Today, a sprinkling of flakes is falling, but the harbinger of spring is here: bud-laden branches of the magnolia set to burst when the first blanket of warmth settles upon them.  Surely, surely, true spring is not far off.

 

Just detectable: a herbaceous peony begins its ascent

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photos D. Sleziak

New Country, New Love

A new day dawns

Along the western coast of Central America, just eleven degrees off the Equator in a country wedged between Nicaragua and Panama, lies one of world's richest ecosystems -- the tropical dry forest. Tropical dry forests make up the majority of tropical forests on Earth, and collectively, they contain 4.5 per cent of the world's biodiversity. During the dry season, their beauty is like no other.  Let's walk.

At the height of the dry season, the forest is a sea of brown

 

In the woods -- an impossible view during the rainy season

       At water's edge, a cacti grove in silhouette                         Stalwarts of the forest: deciduous trees and cacti 

 

 

 

The forest canopy

 

 

 

 

 

Unusual warty bark of an endemic tree

 

 

 

 

Forest dwelling Howler monkey; its eerie

cry can be heard at dawn and dusk

 

 

The peeling bark of the Indio Desnuda tree

allows photosynthesis to occur during

the dry season when the tree has lost its leaves

 

 

Paper wasps create a home

 

 

 

                                           Twisted tangles...                                                                 create a dense canopy

 

 

 

Due to their tough skin and hard-shelled eggs,

the forest supports a large number of reptiles

 

 

 

At the top, a view from the ridge

 

 

 

Back at the water's edge, a flush of green at low tide...

 

 

 

 

and pretty blooms

 

 

 

Hiking in...

Photos D. Sleziak