A visitor from the east

The Prairie Princess is in town for the weekend and the schedule is a trifle changed when she's in town.  She and I went to the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary to look at the progress of the trees and grasses that PP helped plant last year and the year before when she worked for MCC and PRI.  It was our first day with temperatures into the seventies and it felt like summer may actually come this year.  There were very few people at the sanctuary, I guess because it's still Friday and school is still in session.  There were some birds about.  I scared this blue heron (at least that's what I think it is) by getting too close for his comfort, but managed to snap off a photo with him on the wing.

The princess found the marsh marigolds, which are well into their blooming period and are looking healthy and beautiful.  I think she was bending down to smell the aroma.  A smell much nicer than that arising from the French guy she danced with last night (Sorry for that inside joke).

A better view of a patch of marsh marigolds.  They're standing next to one of the larger ponds in the park.

I always try to learn the names of some of the wild plants around when I go to wild areas with PP.  She knows a lot of the names of natives and invasives, and helps me with them when I forget.  This clump of garlic mustard is a big time invasive, imported into North America by European settlers for food, and they have since escaped into the wild.  They are no longer very much part of our diet, but still very much edible as long as you pick some that haven't been poisoned by the land owner.  I tasted these and they don't taste too bad at all, maybe tasty enough for a lunch time salad.

It was a fine day in May.