Common Speedwell, by Andrew Henwood

The park at Brown’s Point, on the Niagara Parkway, is particularly rich in wildflowers; I suspect the hand of man, in the persons of the Niagara Parks Commission, has had quite a bit to do with that. They have been gradually restoring various sections of the Niagara River bank to retrieve as far as possible an original ecology. They have done pretty well.

It’s early days yet – lots of green, not too much colour, but I was pleased to find that the Dame’s Rocket was making a brave show in patches in the woods throughout the area. Also, I was brought up short by a frothy white flower, False Solomon’s Seal, Smilacina racemosa. Against the deep, dark forest background, these two large species make a wonderfully rich display.

But that’s not what I came to talk about today. When I got to Brown’s Point I got off my bike to take in the view across the river for a moment and, looking down, noticed a tiny delicate lilac-coloured flower, making a cushion at the foot of a tall maple tree. Now I should tell you that, despite the seven decades I have spent upon this earth, I am still not familiar with even some of the commonest wildflowers, so I picked a little sprig of this plant to take home and identify. It was Common Speedwell, Veronica officinalis.

The whole plant is very small, only about five inches high, and the flowers tiny, so I had to put my sample under a magnifying lamp to sketch it. Examined this way it really is spectacular. Delicate lilac-coloured flowers with fine purple stripes along the petals decorate long-stalked upright racemes.

So now I must admit to breaking one of the guidelines so gently suggested by Kate – that we should try to illustrate our contributions here with sketches that are done on the spot: in Nature, not from Nature. I could not do that in this case because of the need for magnification. I sketched the plant at twice life size. I apologize for inaccuracies in my drawing; you will find them. I took insufficient time to properly study every component of the flower before going ahead with my painting.

The Grey-headed Coneflower

After a few days away visiting old friends I got back on the bike yesterday for my usual ride – to my usual destination.

At the north end of Brown’s Point Park the trail branches. From a somewhat inconspicuous entry the alternate path wanders through deep, cool woods before emerging to rejoin the main track half a mile further along, at the southern end of the park. The trail forks just immediately before the little stream which shelters a variety of wildflowers along its banks. As I approached the turnoff, flashes of gold caught my eye from along the lower route so I paused, then turned left to check it out, thinking it was probably another clump of Oxeye. But as I drew up to this group of plants lining the wayside ditch I could see right away that this was something different: neither flowers nor leaves resembled the False Sunflower which had made itself at home on the other side of the streamlet.

Some of the plants were quite seven feet high. On the fully opened flowers brilliant yellow rays drooped right down below the prominent pale green crowns. The stems were long, with well-spaced alternate leaves. The larger leaves lower on the plant were deeply divided and delicately toothed.

I extracted ‘Newcomb’ from my saddlebag and soon discovered the identity of this commanding species. It is the Grey-headed Coneflower, Ratibida pinnata. A most beautiful and interesting wildflower, well worth sketching.

So early this morning I retraced my route, armed with just my smallest paintbox and a bottle of water. Generally, when heading out for a ride, I don’t prepare in a particularly methodical way. By default I take my little camera and usually my recently acquired (now dearly loved) wildflower field guide. I may carry a notebook and pencil or a small sketchbook. I only take watercolours when I have already identified what I want to paint. This habit has a healthy side effect: by forcing me to retrace my route soon so as to take a sketch of a newly discovered flower before it is over, I get twice the exercise!

Keeping an Eye on the Cherries

All along the northern section of the Niagara River Recreation Trail you will find cherry trees scattered along the edge of the steep embankment that drops down to the river. They are most common between the Reif Winery and Van de Laar Orchards. Though growing wild, these are not native wild cherries. Some ripen red, some black, and though small, they are sweet and delicious. I suppose the pits must have been spread by birds from orchards planted by the early settlers and the trees have now become naturalized. Cherries are still cultivated within sight of the Parkway.

You need to check often if you want to pick some. In summer the trail is heavily used: joggers, cyclists, rollerbladers, all sharing a six foot wide path with others simply walking their dogs or coming to picnic on the well kept grass. The lower branches are soon stripped of their fruit. On summer weekends there is quite a throng of tourists; I avoid the trail then. I like to go out there on weekdays, first thing in the morning, when it is quiet.

The birds are more watchful and for more hours of the day than the humans, so I know that if I am careless I will miss my chance. Last week I noticed the fruit was beginning to ripen and yesterday, when I went out for my early morning ride, on some of the trees there were plenty ready to pick. So this morning I put a little punnet in my saddlebag, and set off. I was just in time. The birds had indeed been busy and there were noticeably fewer cherries on the trees than yesterday.

It didn’t take long to fill my small basket.

I made this little sketch a week ago, when the first fruits began to ripen. As usual, I have posted to Flickr a number of photos on the subject.

A Useful Piece of Equipment.

I saw a deer this morning, as I was riding out to what is fast becoming my favourite spot for sketching in nature. Sleek, graceful and strong, she had paused in a field on the west side of the Niagara Parkway, a bit north of the Halfway House.

I should explain about the Parkway. The name may make you think it’s a roaring, multilane expressway, but it’s not. It is just two lanes. It dips and curves as it follows the terrain along the bench above the river from Niagara-on-the-Lake down past Queenston to Niagara Falls. The speed limit is 60km/hr, (about 35mph) all the way. So not a big threat to the deer, and not a nuisance either to cyclists and joggers using the pathway, which in many places has to run close alongside.

But I digress. I saw the deer because I was really early, and I was going to make a sketch of the blue flags that I noticed growing by the stream when I was painting the Purple-flowered Raspberry a couple of days ago.. I was pleased to see that the flags were still in bloom when I arrived at the little hollow. I pulled my bike off the path into the long grass, shrugged off my knapsack and started to get set up. This was not easy. The best viewpoint of the flowers was from a steep part of the stream bank, choked by long grass and the early shoots of goldenrod, and backed by a large wild rose bush. I had trouble finding a spot for my camp stool, finally stabilizing it against a walnut sapling, but there was no level place whatsoever to put the small collapsible table that I had made to put my brushes and paints on.

So I was really glad that my wife and I had gone shopping yesterday. One of the items we had got was a beach mat – you know, the ones woven of grass, six feet long by three wide? But this was no ordinary beach mat. It was jointed lengthwise into three one foot panels which fold together before you roll it up. The resulting package is just a foot long by seven inches wide and three thick, and it goes in my painter’s knapsack. I had brought it with me today. Instead of using my table then, I partially unrolled the mat on the long grass, which gave me a clean more or less flat surface to put all my bits and pieces on where they wouldn’t get lost. Brilliant.

The little notch in which the stream runs was a riot of mixed vegetation, so this sketch is another of those jungly impressions. It took me about two hours. You can see some photos of the scene on my Flickr site.

I was so glad to have brought the beach mat. It would have been very difficult to arrange my equipment without it. You know, I never realized before that there might be a luxury line in beach mats; but this one really is the cat’s whiskers. It was designed by Olsen, Europe, the ladies wear manufacturer. It has very pretty piping in blue, purple and black around the sides and along the joints, and folds up to look like a purse of this same material. It has convenient carrying handles too. Considering that my wife got an Olsen outfit included in the deal, ( one of those promotion things), I think the beach mat was a real steal at four hundred and some dollars.

By a little Stream

Yesterday I rode out a little further down the Niagara Trail. Early in the year I have to work up a bit slowly, and anyway, there had been lots to interest me in the fields and woods close to home, but this time I decided to make for Brown’s Point, about 9km up the river. I didn’t quite get that far. About a kilometer north of the Point there is a pretty little dell, where a tiny stream crosses the Parkway from its source somewhere in Tregunno Farms, making its way to the river. Where the pathway crosses the stream there is a little hollow, always damp and choked with impenetrable shrubbery. Here I was waylaid by a lovely sight – a large, vigorous shrub with rose-like flowers of a beautiful magenta hue. I went no further, but spent some time studying the plant and taking photographs with my little point-and-shoot camera. Not expecting to see anything exciting, I had neglected to take along any sketching equipment.

The bush was quite large, already six feet high and about the same wide. The new canes were coming straight up with no branching. They had tiny brown hairs on them, and when I touched the stems, they were sticky. The leaves were large and shapely, palmate, five-lobed and shaped like a maple’s; some of them were eight inches wide. The flowers were five-petalled and clustered on little side twigs of last year’s canes, which were now brown and woody.

When I came home, I went straight to my wildflower guide. I was beginning to be embarrassed about having to run to the experts so often for help, so I was relieved that it didn’t take me long to identify this shrub as the Purple-flowering Raspberry, Rubus odorata.

Late last night we had a real gully-washer of a thunderstorm and this morning was soupy and misty, but it showed promise of clearing off, so I packed my painter’s rucksack and headed off to make a sketch of the raspberry bush. The goldfinches were out on the meadow, gold on gold, the Meadow Salsify now beginning to offer tasty seed heads, and a little further on, I started up a Flicker from foraging in the grass.

For a stretch south from the McFarland House, the trail is sandwiched fairly tightly between the Parkway and the steep, wooded bank of the river, so there’s not so much to see and explore. Nevertheless, I’ll be having things to report on from that section too; but today there would be much to do, so I made straight for my painting subject.

Quite often the little streamlet which runs just a few feet from where I set up to paint will dry out completely in the summer, but this morning when I got there it was chuckling away to itself, playing with all the rain we’d had; a companionable sound. I noticed a blue flag at the water’s edge and a wild rose on the bank. I’ll have to come back to this spot.
Pretty soon the sun burned off the last of the mist and it warmed up fast to be a grand day.

If you’d like to see some of my photos of Rubus odorata, they are on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/a_henwood/sets/72157605997695330/

Morning in the Meadow

I have been riding out often this past week, on the Niagara River Recreation Trail, which runs for 56km along the river on the Canadian side. My favourite spots are quite close to where I live, five to fifteen minutes on the bike.

Last week the huge meadow just west of Fort George, called ‘the Commons’, was covered as far as the eye could see with tall yellow wildflowers. Some of the plants were as much as a meter (3 feet) tall, with graceful grass-like leaves and pretty ‘dandelion style’ flowers, one atop each branching stem.

I went out with my paints early one morning to sketch this attractive plant. I’m glad I chose this day – as I was packing up at about eight thirty a couple of parks employees drove up on an ATV to see what that guy with a bike was doing, sitting in the middle of their field! I showed them my sketch. They explained they were just about to mow the field, which they did that very day. A shame really; they cut it long and don’t take away a hay crop, but they do leave a wide patch uncut towards the woodland edge where the flowers and shrubs may still flourish unhindered. I also took lots of photos there, and when I came home I went to identify the flower. It is actually very common, so you would think that in my eighth decade of life I should know it well. But in my youth I never learned very much about the wonders of nature, and until now have not had the leisure to delve into the subject.

I could not find an exact match to the flower in my wildflower guide, so I went on the web and searched in all directions. Surely, with all the millions of images and sites, it should have been easy. I tried in my search to enter all sorts of qualifying words, but, though it seems in retrospect impossible to miss, I still couldn’t make an identification. As usual, in extremis, the cavalry came to my rescue, in the shape of ‘Buckeye’ and Sigrid, and the “ID Please” group on Flickr.

I learned that what we have here is a species of 'Tragopogon', known as Meadow Salsify, a very close relative of Yellow Goatsbeard, with many other common and local names, the most apt of which is ‘Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon’.

May I digress back to my rides on the bike trail? The day after I made my sketch I was riding by once again, and was surprised to find on the uncut areas of the meadow, not a single flower was open. The flowers were all over, (or so I thought). I was so glad to have made my sketch just in time. In my botanical ignorance, I had not known that this flower opens at early light, but closes again in the middle of the day. I wonder if this is a unique trait amongst the flowers? But thus, of course, the strange name I mentioned.

Getting back to a proper identification. I did want to be absolutely certain as to the sub-species, so that when I wrote this blog I would label accurately and not lead people astray, and there remained still a question – was this species ‘Tragopogon dubius’ the Western (or Yellow) Goatsbeard, or was it ‘T. pratensis’ , the Meadow Salsify? The matter was just settled (I think) this morning, in favour of the latter.

To be truly sure of this interesting plant’s habits, I am revisiting its haunts, morning, noon and night. Quite exhausting really. I think I should go and have my nap now.

What? Oh, yes. You may call me ‘Jack’ if you wish.

Dame's Rocket

This summer I hope to get out more on my bike and try to take an impression in watercolour of some of the succession of wildflowers to be seen along the Niagara Parkway recreational path, the north end of which begins just a few blocks from where we live.

A few days ago I came across a patch of Dame’s Rocket (Hesperis matronalis) in Paradise Grove, a little to the north of the historic McFarland House. .This species grows in great profusion along the side of highways in our area, and has also colonized our own perennial garden, making an early pretty mix of colour in mauves, pinks and white. Not expecting to see much in the way of wildflowers on the Parkway yet, I hadn’t taken any paints with me on my ride that day, so I went back early the next morning to make this quick sketch. These flowers are sharing a space in the open woodland with a jungle of wild raspberries, which are now just starting to show their own little blooms.

I am by no means a wildflower expert, but enjoy identifying species when I can, and posting properly tagged pictures on Flickr. Although I have enjoyed the sight of this flower for many years, I never did know what it was. It looked to me like a wild phlox. Frustratingly, it didn’t seem to feature in my Audubon Field Guide, but enquiry of my neighbour elicited two names – ‘Dame’s Rocket’ and ‘Dame’s Violet’. Armed with this information I quickly found out all about it via Google. I had already discovered that, with only four petals on each little floret it could not be phlox; since that has five petals. It is indeed a look-alike, but a member of the mustard family, an invasive species from Eurasia, introduced in the 17th century. It has certainly made itself at home here.

Hmm. I see I must work on both observing more closely, and taking more care with my sketching – I have painted a number of leaves as opposite pairs where they should be alternate. It would be good practice and fun to try a more accurate botanical painting.

Meet the Correspondents--Andrew Henwood, Saying Hello.

Hi there!

Kate has generously invited me to join this blog, so I thought I should check in and introduce myself.

I am retired, living in Niagara-on-the-Lake, or, as I like to point out - the South Coast of Canada. The last few years have seen me gradually working a little more on my sketching and painting, especially since I signed up to 'Flickr'. I do find great inspiration there, amongst so many good artists, and so I recognize that this blog, being a more specialized venue will enable me to enjoy and learn from yet more people who share similar interests.

I like to work a fairly wide range of media, subject and size: still exploring at a fairly basic level to find what suits me best, so I haven't actually done much nature sketching yet. I enjoy this area for a number of reasons though, which lead me to look forward to doing more. I like the easy and universal accessibility of good subject matter, and the fact that one is enabled to use lots of happy colours. And one more most agreeable feature - that no-one is to say that a flower has to be absolutely symmetrical to be beautiful; as opposed say, to a portrait. This allows those of us who find good drawing often to be a frustrating challenge to relax a little and find some freedom in small sketches from nature.

I look forward to meeting new friends here and finding lots of interesting work to appreciate. I have enclosed a link here (I think), to my site on Flickr, where you may find what I have been up to so far with my art.

Best regards to you all, from Andrew