Another Walk in the Woods

An incorrect camera setting gave me the above photo. I kind of like it, although it does give the impression of snow on the ground ... brrrr! I went for a walk in my nearby conservation area with my husband and the pup. It's a mild but windy day today, and the woods were damp. It's not a very long walk (well, what we did, there is a much longer loop I would have walked if I was on my own), but it was enough to get some fresh air and a bit of exercise for the day.

This is the shot I was going for originally (below) ... quite a bit more colourful wouldn't you say? A lovely beech tree leaning over the path with lots of that coppery goodness still decorating its branches.

Still lots of colour around, but most of the leaves have dropped to the ground now, leaving the trees in their cold bareness for the coming winter months.

I do love the combination of the white and black birches and their golden leaves.

A perfect autumn combination :)

I'll let the trees speak for themselves for the next few shots ...

This is the oak tree I showed in my previous post of my walk in these woods. It's now turned coppery orange in the short space of two weeks, and looking amazing!

today

two weeks ago

The sky was starting to look ominous, and the wind was definitely picking up! We were afraid a storm was brewing, but even now that we're home that hasn't happened.

  This interesting fungus which I photographed last time as well.

This is along my secret path ... not so many people come down this path, so I can let Cody off leash. 

I liked the way the greenery was trickling down the end of this tree stump.

The creek was quite swollen and muddy from our heavy rain earlier this week.

There were a lot of people along the trail today, and almost everyone had their obligatory cup of coffee from Tim Horton's in their hands. Unfortunately, most people that walk into the woods with a coffee don't walk out with the empty cup! The cup is tossed carelessly onto the forest floor. The coffee cups are not biodegradable as there's a plastic lining in the cup to keep them from leaking. So they sit for a long time in the woods without disintegrating and looking quite ugly. When I saw one cup stuffed into the top of a tree stump I at first walked by while my husband and I made comments about how lazy people are by not taking their empty cups with them. But then I walked back and put the cup into a plastic bag I happened to have in my pocket. Twenty cups later!! I had a bag full of coffee cups (all from Tim Horton's) and about 10 bottles and cans. Terrible! 

There were even more cups added after this shot!

I have admired Tammy for her efforts in cleaning up garbage in her city, which seems at times futile. But if no one ever picks this stuff up, our green spaces will look like a garbage dump. On the way out, I stopped and squeezed my full shopping bag of cups into the one and only garbage bin in this park, which is on the way out to the parking lot. On the way back to the parking lot I spied yet another bag of McDonald's garbage, carelessly tossed under a beautiful pine tree. The garbage bin is on the left and the garbage is on the right. You'd think the person would be able to see the garbage bin quite plainly, and maybe they did and were just too lazy to take it there. So annoying.

We passed another couple who each had a cup of coffee in their hands. I was in the process of picking up yet another Tim Horton's coffee cup from under the trees. When I stood up I just had to tell them "Don't throw your cups into the woods when you're finished with them!!". Of course they said they wouldn't with little chuckles, but I wonder if they did. Even though it seems a bit degrading to pick up other people's garbage, I consider these conservation areas to be mine (along with everyone else), and I like to see a clean green space, not a garbage dump. I think when people see that someone else already threw their garbage on the ground, they think it's OK for them to do the same. So I'm hoping that if they see that there isn't any garbage around, they will think twice and maybe take it out with them. 

You carried it in, you can carry it out!

And after that little rant ... have an enjoyable Sunday afternoon :)

Wendy