In May 2011, after four years of life on McNutt's Island, we moved to Montreal. This blog remains, though, as a (sort of) daily record of our time on the island, and a winding path for anyone who would like to meander about among its magical places. For additional perspectives and insights I recommend Greg's book, Island Year: Finding Nova Scotia (2010), and my Bowl of Light (2012). I'll continue to post once in a while. If you do want to read this blog, one option would be to begin at the beginning of it (which is, as we all know, in blog-world, at the end), and read forward, concluding with the most recent entry. It's a journal, really, so it does makes more sense if you read it that way. But, you know, read it any way you like.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Gawking about

Gawking about, I found various small signs in the woods and along the road today. Signs of what? you might ask. Oh, I don't know, really. Maybe you can figure it out. The little Canada violet, with its delicate tracing of purple, for discerning bees.
The small blue butterfly that dances from sunny place to sunny place, always keeping just beyond the corner of your eye. When the blue butterfly alights and is still and you would think -- aha! it's still, now! I can really, really see it! That's exactly the instant when it closes up its wings and becomes invisible. So this butterfly is just too quick to be caught on film or pixels. But it dances nevertheless.
I thought I knew what this tree was, but now I'm not sure. It is everywhere on the island, and it shimmers now like amethysts and rubies flung across the forest.
A fern rising from the ground. The sheep love to eat them, but do not worry. Multiply this fern by about one billion and you will have the number of ferns rising from the island right now, silently unfolding, all together.
There are vast moss forests, too.
This wild bee is a sort of cinnamon colour, and has a long proboscis. He seemed to be enjoying the grass that grows along the road. He's about twelve centimeters long not counting the schnozz. I have read that there are thousands of varieties of wild bees. This is not the one I saw near the lilac buds the other day. It was lovely to see another bee.
Bee shadow.

4 comments:

JoAnn ( Scene Through My Eyes) said...

Lovely spring announcements. Did you know you can pick the fiddle heads and steam them - deeelicious. Maybe you already knew that. Get them while they are young and tight.

Eco Yogini said...

i love your pictures! however, bees scare me, especially that one- it's huge!

Suz said...

It sounded like a lovely day counting the elements of Spring!Your photo's are inspiring. I haven't seen a bee in PEI yet!

Terry J. Deveau said...

I think you meant to say the bee was twelve millimetres long. Twelve centimetres would be the size of your whole hand.

:-)