Indian Pipe

While I was concentrating on the forest floor to photograph the orchids pictured here recently I also noticed another favorite plant that doesn't mind the darkness beneath the big trees near Matheson Lake. This is an emerging clump of Indian Pipe, a fascinating plant that, like the orchids, has no chlorophyll and gets it nourishment from its relationship with a fungus.

Coralroots

While out at Matheson Lake Park on Saturday I was pleased to see some of our small local orchids blooming. I didn't realize until I got home and examined the photos more closely that I had been looking at two species of Coralroot, the one pictured above with a plain white lower lip and the one pictured to the left with a spotted lover lip.

Matheson Lake

Victoria's ocean beaches are popular in the summer but many are rocky rather than sandy and even in summer's heat the Pacific is cold. Many local residents prefer to swim in one of the many small lakes that can be found in the greater Victoria area. Here's one I've been visiting lately in the Westshore community of Metchosin. It's called Matheson Lake and lies in the Matheson Lake Regional Park.

Vancouver Ground-Cone

Here's an oddity Fern and I came across during our walk around Matheson Lake. When I first saw it I thought it was a pine cone standing on its end. There were two of them and I assumed some kid was playing with them and left them standing upright like that. But when I touched one I realized it was firmly rooted in the ground and looked a little closer. It's not a pine cone but a parasitic plant called Vancouver Ground-Cone (Boschniakia hookeri). In our area it is parasitic on salal and huckleberry plants. It just goes to show that no matter how many times you go for a walk in the woods you might always see something new.

Water Lilies

As Benjamin and I strolled around Matheson Lake last Sunday we both agreed that water lilies are challenging to photograph as they are often kind of 'messy' looking. This is one a took of them which I quite like in the end. - Fern

Pacific Starflower

When Fern and I walked around Matheson Lake earlier in the week the forest floor was thickly dotted with these bright little Pacific Starflowers.

Matheson Lake

While out in Metchosin on Sunday Fern and I also visited Matheson Lake where I always take a picture of this small island in the lake because it reminds me so much of the paintings of the Canadian artist group known as The Group of Seven. The sign at the left was posted at the entrance to a pathway leading to the lake. Being a daily photo blogger is not without its risks!

Metchosin in Spring

Yesterday I went for a walk on the section of the Galloping Goose Trail that runs through Metchosin, close to Matheson Lake. It was one of those spring days where it rained a little and then the sun came out and within an hour did it all again. I love when the new growth is so very green and sparkles in the clean air of April. Good time to be alive. - Fern

Look Carefully....

Almost lost amidst the blaze of autumn leaves, this Douglas Squirrel (Tamiasciurus douglasii) pulled my eyes away from the abundant mushrooms near the trail around Matheson Lake. While I am quite familiar with the local Black and Grey Squirrels that live comfortably in our urban areas, I don't remember seeing a Douglas Squirrel before and I am happy to add this one to the roster of local indigenous animals that I have recorded here.

Mushroom Season

Last week I posted a photo of some mushrooms we saw on our excursion to Matheson Lake Regional Park. We went there for the the express purpose of seeing some mushrooms and we weren't disappointed. We must have seen more than a dozen different varieties, including a little clump of Amanita muscaria, a mushroom I have not seen before though I have long wanted to. Unfortunately the Amanitas were all in sad states of decay and being near the trail's edge were mostly tattered and broken so I will not post any photos of them and encourage you to click their name above and see the many excellent photos of them on Wikipedia. I don't know the name of the cluster of ghostly white mushrooms pictured above. I'm still working on how best to identify mushrooms. One of the identifying features of mushrooms is the spore print but to get one you have to pick the mushroom and I am reluctant to do that so I may continue to appreciate mushrooms anonymously....

Matheson Lake

Yesterday's photo was taken during a walk in Matheson Lake Regional Park and here is a photo of the lake that gives the park its name. It's a long narrow lake with several rocky little islands. There is a hiking trail that completely encircles the lake and intersects with the Galloping Goose Regional Trail, used by walkers and cyclists. It's a lovely spot and, at this time of year, practically deserted. During the four hours we were there we saw only a few other people.

Matheson Lake Regional Park

Victoria is a lovely city but it also has within a half hour's drive a multitude of wilderness areas preserved as regional parks. While the lakes and trails in these parks are at their most beautiful in the spring, the fall brings another kind of bloom to the forest floors - Mushrooms. Mosses too that have been struggling to survive through the long dry summer now thrive in the cool damp of autumn. This photo was taken yesterday during a beautiful hike Fern and I took around Matheson Lake, near Sooke.