Jack’s Walk

It’s snowing here today with high winds (gusts up to 90 km/hr) and I just can’t bear to take one more wintry photo this spring. Instead, I give you this beautiful old willow tree that caught my eye the day Jack and I went to the lake. It looked so sculptural silhouetted against the blue, blue sky. I’m actually very fond of the look of bare trees in the winter. You can see how unique each one is and that they all have their own personality. Normally, I don’t find them depressing at all. Today, though, I would give a lot to see a tree fully dressed. Heck, today just a few leaf buds would thrill me.

Willow tree

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Jack’s Walk

Over the weekend Charly wrote an interesting post about different types of fungal infections in trees. Today, Jack and I came upon this downed tree and if I remember his post correctly this is a sapwood infection with unaffected heartwood. The damage is quite extreme and I think the infection is parasitic rather than fungal. So much of the wood has been eaten away that I suspect some sort of critter made a banquet of this tree.

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Jack’s Walk

We went to the lake today to look at the lingering ice and there was none! This was cause for celebration and Jack chose to do his happy dance in the cold, cold water. Don’t worry, though, he’s fine. Jack’s coat is so dense that only his guard hairs get wet. His undercoat and skin stay completely dry. Labs are thoroughly built to be swimmers. They even have webbed feet.

 

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Jack’s Walk

Today Jack and I went out to the country for our walk. It was another dull and chilly day, but we found this lovely horse to talk to. He wouldn’t come closer because of Jack, but we did slowly walk the fence line together. The horse has a bit of a crook in his left back leg with a slight limp, but he wanted to keep us with us and we walked together for quite a while. It was very peaceful.

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Jack’s Walk

Our walk today was cold, wet, windy and muddy. Pretty much a typical Canadian spring day. There was one bright spot though. My neighbour has made her garden bloom by planting wine decanter and bud vase flowers. I might just copy that idea. It’s going to be awhile before the real flowers turn out.

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Jack’s Walk

We had an errand in Toronto today and it’s a long drive so we stopped at this beautiful building near the airport for a walk on the way home. I popped my head in to pick up a brochure and learned that this is the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, a Hindu temple built in 2007 with 95,000 cu. ft. of hand carved marble. There are more than 24,000 blocks fitted together puzzle style with no steel hardware or reinforcement. It’s highly ornate and more than a little imposing, but the day was sunny and warm and we had a lovely wander around. It reached a balmy 6 degrees today and actually felt like spring. Tomorrow we’re back to our usual and much more mundane stomping grounds.

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Jack’s Walk

That white stuff you see in the foreground is snow mould, not snow, and it happens every year in these parts. It comes with the snowmelt and is a fungal infection of the soil that kills grass. It puts out spores that cause allergies and poor Jack must avoid the stuff or his eyes get goopy. That means our adventure tomorrow will be in different parts.