Tiny flowers

I have visited Neck Point park. Glorious wild landscapes and vistas for a "city" park.

It was full of the tiniest flowers.

Using the close up feature on the camera, I did my best to capture their tiny delicacy.

It brought to mind the first time I visited the Rockies in 1971 or '72. I was the first time I had been there and, having grown up in the rolling hills of Ontario, I was dwarfed by the experience and sometimes, the easiet way of coping with that immense vista was to see the very small, very close up.

Today, that was my feeling. The bracing wind, blowing off the water, forcing me to lean into it, breathe it up, drink in the possibility of being blown away, I decided to concentrate on either the big picture or the very small. This time of year brings out all these little beauties. I neither have the camera nor the patience to complement these pictures with ones of all the tiny birds that were in amongst those flowers, but they were there in full song. Tiny little voices tweeting away, or saying very understandable things like “hey sweety” (that's a western chickadee) or the tzeeee of the towhee.

It takes about an hour to follow to pathways that go around the perimiter of the park. This, of course, includes the many stops to gasp in admiration or to take pictures. I'm finding that the gray weather tends to affect the colour of things, giving them a very dull look sometimes and being a bit of a disappointment when I download them. I must return to that park on a sunny day.

We've had a very heavy overnight downpour and it's only tapering off now, around 1 o'clock, on Sunday. I walked for a while, but it's a bit too much having the hood of my coat drip like a porch roof as I try to see the birds in the bay.

Another Artic loon, Merganzers, this surprised me, but a pileated woodpecker, some killdeer, tons of vultures.

I saw in the yard this morning, a cottontail rabbit that was munching on the stems and closed tops of dandelions! Not the ones gone to seed but the freshly closed flowers. He tidied up that freshly mown lawn very nicely thank you.

Off to Tofino tomorrow. A hostel bed all booked with an ocean view. Well, close enough. Even if it rains, I am assured of seeing the coast in a wild form, waves and all.

The deer were out last night too, as I was finishing up the weeding in the garden. They were about 30 feet away from me. They kept an eye on me and mosied their way across the road to the yard next door.