Into the Valley - A Familiar Refrain

I went into the valley yesterday and wandered a little further along the path than I've been before.


There is a terrific view, high up on a bluff over the river. If I had taken this photo a minute later, I would have caught a few shots of a heron making its way along the course, twenty feet below me and twenty feet above the river. It looked like a pterodactyl.


I'll explore this region more in the coming weeks - there is a lot more of it.


After slipping and sliding my way down a clay and mud embankment to take some photos, I looked carefully at the debris that had been exposed by the rains.


Perfectly exposed, and still attached by a finger of mud was this little fossil of a bivalve. Beside it was some organic matter, it felt like a piece of charcoal.


A little higher up, I found this coin - corroded and pitted, I can't figure out what it is. It was about 3 feet down, so I am guessing it is from the 1800s.


In the forest below, I sat and had a hot chocolate with some biscuits and sat in my folding, legless camping chair, and listened to the birds.


Next time I am going to bring some heavy-duty garbage bags down with me. An accumulation of plastic and beer bottles and mosquito-repellent candles and general garbage is making it a mess. I have no words.


The woods are overgrown and thick and green.


This berry reminded me of a gooseberry, but I think it is not.


I had a quick fire started with my ferrocerium rod and a small handful of roughed up birch bark. It was hot out, and the wood was dry and fire was without smoke.


Along the way I found little tiny fungi, but the rains from over the last few nights seem to have melted most of them away.


This one was small, but tough, and resisted my attempts to peel it away from the fallen birch branch.


These bright berries are white inside, with a seed. They taste dry like a partridge berry. I spat out the small piece I tasted immediately though. Just to be safe.


I left these ripening blackberries alone for another day.


There are so many of these Daddy Long Legs spiders on the forest floor, looking for a bite to eat.


Burdocks are ripening.


These blackberries ended up in my mouth - I picked a large handful of them. No black bears about, luckily. After all, I'm still in Toronto.


I think this is a wild rose.


The plantains are huge - each leaf is larger than my hand.


Each time I go down into the valley, I find something new. I could spend every afternoon there.

Cheers,

Mungo