Sharon's Week 30: Better Late Than Never

Things That Grow

I am back safe and sound from our annual backpacking trip to Lake Superior Provincial Park.  This year we took it easy...Levi and I hiked 4 km in to our favourite spot at Orphan Lake while our friend Maxine chose to do a grueling 10 km route to meet us.  We spent five nights there, hiking, reading, playing plinko (throwing pebbles at partially submerged rocks trying to get rebounds), taking a nap or two and enjoying listening to the waves and birds while studying the sky trying to predict the weather.  I finished up these photos and got started on the next ones but you'll have to wait for those...I just don't have time tonight to do both.

About the photos this week...when I mentioned to my sister that this week's topic was things that grow she said something along the lines of, "Oh, I guess there'll be more flower pictures."  And it was not said in an excited tone of voice.  So I tried to think outside the box but we had that heatwave that kept me indoors then frantic packing took the rest of my time.  Fortunately I had a nice little visit with my friend Ali who just bought a house where the previous owners had been quite the gardeners.  I took out my camera while she did some weeding and I got some photos.  

Ah, but first we have growing kittens!

Some of the edibles in Ali's garden...

juicy raspberries

dill

and soon to be edible plums.

There are also plants that are just for show.  I don't know what these snowball-looking things are.

I loved the way the setting sun was lighting this flower but I couldn't make the camera see it the same way I did.  I included the photo anyway.

Now we move on to the park where I found flowers and bugs.

A wild iris (I think).

And let me tell you about the blueberries...this was probably the only actual cluster of ripe berries in the whole park (which is 62 km long and I don't know how wide).  The berries were few and far between and it was hard picking to get enough for our pancakes (Levi didn't help as he just ate what he picked).  The weather looked iffy at dinner time so we set up our kitchen under the tarp on pancake night.  It was kind of crowded in that space and I had the stove, the batter, the butter, bacon, our plates, the pan, the syrup and the cup of berries to manage.  Let's just say I didn't manage very well and there were only a few blueberry pancakes in the end.

That's it for my things that grow.  I wanted to include Levi in this as he has officially passed me in the height department but I didn't get any good photos of him during the week.