Green False Hellebore

Yesterday I was digging holes in preparation for planting a half-dozen small (1-3 ft tall) white spruce and balsam fir trees on the northern side of our Gaspe home landscape. The hope is that in time they will get big enough to  provide a screen to obscure the view and dampen the sound of the adjoining highway (#132) and train. Glancing downslope, just beyond our property line, I was surprised to see a patch of green false hellebore (Veratrum viride), a plant which I first saw, and immediately liked, while hiking in Lassen National Park, California, during my college years in the early 1970s. This tall (up to 6 ft) herbaceous perennial has a leafy stem that superficially resembles corn, but which is highly toxic if ingested. Interestingly, Green False Hellebore occurs in the mountains of both western and eastern North America, including the southern Appalachians where it can be found in mountain meadows, bogs, and boulder fields. Here on the Gaspe Peninsula, I've seen it growing mainly on moist open sites in the boreal forest where white spruce and balsam fir are dominants.

Green False Hellebore

A visit to Metis (Redford) Gardens

Yesterday was a beautiful day in Quebec Province. Wanting to take advantage of it, we decided to visit Metis Gardens (also known as Redford Gardens), a wonderful historic Botanical Garden about 45 km east of Le Bic. It was well worth the trip as the Gardens harbor an interesting diversity of plants and landscapes including ornamentals as well as native plants of the Quebec region and beyond. We enjoyed seeing a number of plants that occur in the Southern Appalachians, including  (Rhododendron catawbiense), large-flowered trillium (Trillium grandiflorum), and bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) as well as plants from far flung places. An example of the latter, and perhaps my favorite plant of the day, was Blue Poppy (Pavot Blue in French), Meconopsis betonicifolia, native to alpine habitats in the Himalayas of Tibet. The photo below illustrates the unusual blue color of these flowers. I suspect that in its native habitat, bees actively visit the flowers to harvest its abundant pollen.

Blue Poppy at Redford Garden

Neighboring Horse Farm

Nearly across the street from our Le Bic house is a horse farm with beautiful white and brown horses (and one black one) along with an old barn. There's pasture for the horses. The surrounding landscape is mostly hayfields with scattered patches of forest.
I enjoy walking by the horses each morning. They seem curious about me and my dog Woody, sometimes coming up to the fence to get a closer look (and probably hoping to get a treat).
This morning was a bit different, as most of the horses were lying down in the far field. Were they sleeping? I could not tell. But I do know that virtually all animals sleep in some fashion. I suspect horses can sleep standing up so they don't need to lie down for sleep to occur. I'd like to learn more about the sleep patterns of horses.

Our neighbors horses

Exchanging Plants with a Neighbor

A week or so ago, my neighbor Denys, who is bilingual, was kind enough to ask a neighbor (Pierre, who only speaks French) if I could collect a few plants growing on his forested land on a rocky ridge.  Pierre said yes, but suggested the soil is very shallow and rocky and that it's hard to dig. With some effort, I  collected a few cuttings (lateral shoots) from two large patches of Canada mayflower and bunchberry and transplanted them into my incipient wildflower garden. We'd like to plant mainly native plants of this region in our garden but their availability in the local nursery trade seems to be quite limited. So, we were happy to get cuttings of natives from a neighbor.
Wanting to give Pierre something in return, I dug up a half-dozen or so ornamental day lilies growing in our yard, put them in a wheel barrel, and brought them over to Pierre's house. Using his cell phone, I showed him a photo of a day lily in bloom. He immediately recognized the plant, smiled, and happily took the plants. All in all it was a lovely interaction between two neighbors unable to communicate by a common language.

Hay Harvest on Summer Solstice

Yesterday was the summer solstice. While walking on the beach road at Saint Fabian (always an interesting and ever-changing experience) the evening quiet was broken by the clicketty-clack of a large trailer pulled by a tractor. We waved to the driver, sitting high in the tractor as he passed. The trailer stacked with freshly harvested bales of hay, perhaps being taken to a nearby barn and stored as a winter food source for the dairy cattle common in the region.
In any case, it was the first time we've seen a hay harvest this summer. Since there's still much of summer to go, I would guess the local hay fields, of which there are many, will get a second, and perhaps even a third harvest before the growing season comes to a halt. I'm reminded of the wise adage, "make hay while the sun shines."

First hay harvest of summer season

The Beach at Saint Fabian

To celebrate the summer solstice on 21 June, 2018, my partner and I walked along the beach at Saint Fabian (just up the road from our house in Le Bic). It was one of those magical evenings - the surface of the Saint Lawrence Seaway was smooth as glass, the sun low in the sky with nary a cloud, and temperatures a pleasantly cool 65F. An added bonus was picturesque driftwood scattered along the high tide line. I could not resist bringing a sample home. It was the third piece of wood I've gathered from the beach this summer, each of which currently adorns our landscape. The few biting insects, mosquitoes and black flies, were hardly a bother, contrasting with what we've recently encountered working in our garden. I imagine the mosquitoes will be around most of summer but we're hoping the black flies have a relatively short season. We'll see....

Beach at Saint Fabian

First Bike Ride in Bic National Park

My partner, Lisa, has not owned a bike in quite a few years, but with lots of bike trails in Bic National Park, whose entrance is only about 2 km down the road from our house, she bought a  hybrid bike, good on both pavement and the gravel trails in the Park. Here she is on her first ride, taking a break to admire the view of the Saint Lawrence Seaway in Bic National Park.

Lisa taking in the view at Bic National Park

Our House on the Gaspe Peninsula

Just this month my partner and I purchased the house pictured below in Le Bic, on the Gaspe Peninsula, about 3 hours drive east of Quebec City. The house was a small (one classroom) school in the 1900s, renovated in 2002 as a family home. The forested ridge in the background is part of Le Bic National Park which has a wonderful mix of boreal forest and shoreline along the Saint Lawrence River, where harbor seals seals can often be seen basking on the rocks. Over the next couple of months, I will be blogging about our experiences in this beautiful part of Canada where French is spoken. We plan to divide our time between Le Bic, in the Quebec Province in the far northern Appalachian Mountains, and Asheville, North Carolina, in the southern Appalachians.