Andrew Trundlewagon's photos

A patch of Virginia bluebell (Mertensia virginica) growing in the woods of the ravines of North York, Toronto. Unlike the European bluebells, these are in the borage family.

A pair of wood ducks (Aix sponsa, canard branchu). They were rather far away so the resolution on the photo is not the greatest.

The Azalea after light rain.

A clump of marsh marigolds (Caltha palustris; Populage des marais) growing in a dark and boggy part of the woods. (Parc St, Bruno, Quebec)

Eighty years ago, on this day, 5th of May 1945 the Nazi forces in the Netherlands officially surrendered to Canadian Lieutenant-General Foulkes. This is from the war memorial in Windsor Station, Montreal, that is dedicated to Canadian railway workers who sacrificed their lives in World War I and II, who should never be forgotten. We can only hope that such sacrifices will never be needed again and think of those who are still living under the daily threat of needless death in the war zones of the present. “To commemorate those in the service of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company who at the call of King and Country, left all that was dear to them, endured hardship, faced danger, and finally passed out of sight of men by the path of Duty and Self-Sacrifice, giving up their own lives that others that others might live in freedom. Let others who come after, see to it that their names be not forgotten”.

Claytonia caroliniana or the Carolina spring-beauty. One of the early spring ephemerals that are starting to flower in the woods, racing to get their business done after the soil has thawed and before the tree leaves cover the ground in shade.

An eastern comma butterfly (Polygonia comma; Polygone virgule). It is the first butterfly I have seen this year, so one more sign that Spring is really here at last. They hibernate over winter. It was drinking sap from a recently felled maple.

A row of Romans at the ROM - Royal Ontario Museum. ("Friends, Romans and Countrymen, lend me your heads")

We are holding a General Election in Canada on Monday. It is a serious business as the former Republic to our South seems hellbent on wrecking our economy and annexing our country. It is so serious that even the cats have joined the fight. (A collection of "election" posters seen in Downtown Montreal).

No walk in the Ravines of Toronto would be complete without a warning of the many dire risks that might befall the intrepid hiker, not least the danger of a serious Jabberwock encounter. ("Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!")

Rutile, Royal Ontario Museum mineral collection. Rutile is titanium dioxide (TiO2). "Rutile has one of the highest refractive indices at visible wavelengths of any known crystal and also exhibits a particularly large birefringence (splits a ray of light into two beams) and high dispersion (rainbow effect)." (FROM en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutile )

Homage to the Highest Power. This is an enormous painting, 306.5 cm high (3.35 yards) and 1042 cm (11.395 yards) in length. I stitched it together from three frames, but as they were not all exactly at the same distance and angle the joints are pretty shaky and not anywhere near as precise as they should be, but this was the only way I could even hint at the scale of the painting. It is one of a pair of wall paintings currently in the Royal Ontario Museum that came originally from a temple in southern Shanxi province. It was created during the late Yuan dynasty, c. 1271–1368, using pigments mixed with clay and plaster. (Information from Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homage_to_the_Highest_Power) . The painting shows “a procession of Daoist deities and their celestial attendants, sometimes referred to as Chaoyuan tu or the 'Heavenly Court'. These deities, whose court is modeled on the bureaucratic structure of the earthly world, are said to maintain the order of nature and to govern the welfare of human beings”. Although it is rather formal, the painting is brimming with action, the character skillfully captured with a facial expression or gesture. The paintings were purchased in 1937 from a New York based art dealer, Yamanaka and Company. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bishop_White_Gallery_of_Chinese_Temple_Art

Possibly of limited interest but here it is anyway. These are the sporing bodies (or perithecia) of the beech blister fungus. The fungus infects beech trees through wounds caused by a tiny insect, the beech scale insect (Cryptococcus fagisuga). The fungus causes blisters to form in the bark. I have read estimates that between 50 and 85% of the trees will die from the disease. The insect is an invasive species that probably arrived in Canada through Nova Scotia in the early 20th century. (If you look closely, there are some small black animals crawling among the fungus. These are some kind of springtail).

A white breasted nuthatch in a very old apple tree

More snow. A spring snow fall. Montreal.

Last Friday morning we had a full lunar eclipse. I had to get up early (3.00 a.m) to catch it, but the moon turned completely dark red for a while, so it was quite impressive. My camera lenses are not ideal for photographing the moon, but I gave it a go anyway.

Apple in warp drive

A white breasted nut hatch (Sittelle).