Of Moisture and Mosquitoes

Although the title would suggest a less alluring adventure, I promise, I was able to capture some goodies (almost as sweet as the licorice goodies) on my evening excursion. Lately when I see moss growing I can't help but snap a photo of it. I think I have a small fetish with moss and how it covers the ground and other specimens in the forest. I'd actually enjoy having moss between the tiles of a walkway in the backyard vs fill of pebbles or cement. I can see it now, nice natural blue slate pieces with bright green moss encompassing...

So these are two dead trees, not completely dead, where the moss is vibrantly living on each of them. Now if you know anything about moss, you'll know that it prefers moist soil and shade. I was hiking on part of the the Oak Ridges trail, called the Woodland Passage at the King City Seneca College location. I went further than the 500 meters of the trail though as I wanted to get more of a hike in with my new boots. This place was super soggy, I put a dose of the ol' bug spray on before I left, but I was swarmed by mosquitoes at times, especially by the ponds. To give you an idea of how wet this place is, there are 7 miniature bridges I encountered, that is quite a bit for the short distance I was walking (3kms). One is on the right, also note the boots, which are so comfortable, no blisters, I ran through the soggy sections and puddles, feet stayed perfectly dry!
Below is, (yet again) another picture of a stone wall, however this is a reinforcement wall and is man made, still beautiful and covered in part with moss as well.  I though it was pretty.


I went off course and into a field as I was interested to see what was growing, it looked like some sort of bean though I wasn't overly sure. Seems early for them to have grown so fast with the frost warnings. Anyhow after climbing a moderate hill I came up to this field and for the first time since I've moved to Ontario, (November 2011) I caught a young buck (deer) all by his lonesome along the edges, I capture him cantering away, he was beautiful. He kept looking back to see if I was still there too.  Adorable, made my night for sure.

 

 Oh, and another quick look-see, just in case I was chasing him through the field :)

 The rest are pictures I wanted to share from the hike that I thought were cool, moss, fungus and then the lovely overhang of foliage above the old garage at the Eaton house. Twas a beautiful night.

Lastly for the night, this is how I view adventures, one never knows what one will find, nor does one know how it will affect oneself, but most adventures are uplifting and make for amazing stories in the future.