Not a Bluebell Wood

In the town where I live there is a small wooded copse adjacent to the Fritz Farm Community Centre that for most of the year is nothing very special but just now is carpeted by a rather glorious collection of blue flowers. A few days ago, seeking interesting mosses (I do stuff like that – I know, nerd) to add to my 1000 Species Project (https://1000species.sparroworks.ca) the flowers caught my eye and I took a quick snapshot – with the unsuitable-for-this-purpose macro lens I was carrying for the mosses. This photo I later shared on the town’s Facebook group and for whatever reason it has garnered far more FB ‘Likes’ than any photograph that I or anyone else has posted in that group since it was created. What’s more, I started to receive comments from long time residents who remembered this blue carpet from their younger days when they would eagerly look forward to visiting the copse between snow-melt and leaf-burst. I even had a request to purchase copies of the photo. A “magic place” one of them called it.

Clearly my casual snapshot has struck a chord with the community – so this morning, before the cold rain arrived, I revisited and took more photos, the best of which I have put into the gallery below. If you click on any one of the thumbnails you will open all the images up in a full size gallery that you can browse.

*Baie-D’Urfé residents, please feel free to download any image you especially like (right click to select and download) and if there is one that particularly appeals to you just email me for access to a print quality image file.

Funny how serendipity works.

Note for the botanists – clearly this is not a bluebell wood. Bluebells are not a native species and are rarely seen here even in curated gardens. These flowers are all Scyllas … also an alien species but one which has certainly naturalised in this particular habitat.