Welcome, spring — it’s great to finally smell you!
“Nature never did betray the heart that loved her.”*
April 28, Jobe's Woods, Presqu'ile Provincial Park
Living in southern Ontario, one becomes au fait with Mother Nature’s annual identity crisis: To release spring or prolong winter? And that is one of the most wonderful, challenging, and amazing things about Ontario weather. We await the arrival of spring’s sweet breath, alternating between anticipation and impatience all the while enduring unexpected and unwanted snow flurries one day followed by a most welcome sirocco the next, and then frost advisories and then, without warning…
April 12, Coltsfoot, Jobe's Woods, Presqu'ile Provincial Park
Welcome, spring — it’s great to finally smell you!
Yes, smell.
The smell of spring is definitely in the air. One of my favourite things to do at Presqu’ile is to take my chair into Jobe’s Woods; to sit quietly and absorb its force majeure and its undeniable beauty. Already, the woods are alive with buzzing insects flitting about everywhere, with the industry of the squirrels and with the sound of frogsong mixed with the melodic chorus of the birds. And the smell of spring. I’d forgotten just how wonderful that is.
April 22, Squill, Jobe's Woods, Presqu'ile Provincial Park
Jobe’s Woods was positively bursting with an entire bouquet of restorative fragrances - the camphoraceous smell of the cedars mixing pleasantly with the earth's musky notes and the clean scent of chlorophyll from the emerging leaves, tender new shoots and wildflowers.
April 28, Whitlow-grass, Presqu'ile Provincial Park
“When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for the moment.
I want to give that world to someone else.”**
May 5, Wakerobin (Red Trillium), Jobe's Woods, Presqu'ile Provincial Park
Here in Ontario, our earliest wildflowers typically begin to bloom in April and the spring breezes carry their subtle floral notes. Scent attracts pollinators like the bees that are newly productive.
April 28, Dandelion (and a bee), Presqu'ile Provincial Park
When it comes to fragrance, native wildflowers are nonpareil — combined with their colours and shapes, they show off Mother Nature’s amazing flair for design.
Field Horsetail (babies), Jobe's Woods, Presqu'ile Provincial Park
Everywhere I walked, everywhere I looked there were delicate wildflowers springing up and they gave me enormous joy!
April 28, Hepatica, Jobe's Woods, Presqu'ile Provincial Park
Coltsfoot, Squill, Whitlow-grass, Dandelion, Hepatica, Anemone, Field Horsetail, Ladyfern, Marsh Marigold and Wakerobin and many other bright, happy, hopeful blossoms.
May 5, Canada Anemone, Jobe's Woods, Presqu'ile Provincial Park
If you’re lucky enough to spend time in the woods this spring, pause, count the wildflowers and deeply inhale the fresh springtime smells; soak up the calmness and beauty. That feeling is serenity, pleasure and comfort.
May 5, Marsh Marigolds, Presqu'ile Provincial Park
Peace and contentment - what could possibly be better?
’Til next time, y’all…
*William Wordsworth. Wordsworth was a Romantic poet and the British Poet Laureate.
**Georgia O’Keeffe