Shallow Bay 2: More Wonders Still

I will begin this post with our picnic spot. It was after 1:00 and we were ready for a break. We climbed up from the beach to this beautiful grassy area and sat down in the long, silky grass. Ticks have arrived in Newfoundland, but they are not nearly as plentiful as they are in Ontario so the sensation of sitting and then lying down in a field of grass is one I haven't felt in a very long time. The sun was shining but wasn't too hot. We had the sound of the waves gently lapping the shoreline. I very nearly fell asleep!

This shows the view from our picnic spot.

The trees in the above photo are tuckamore, which are trees that are sculpted and shaped by the wind. This particular swath of tuckamore is special because it is completely undisturbed. No one has cut through it.

Speaking of trees, we saw some fir and spruce trees that looked very different from the way we usually think of them. Here is a picture of me standing next to a tree. There is another tree in the foreground.

The conditions in this spot are not conducive to verticality for these trees. The branches that try to move upward are damaged so the tree ends up growing sideways along the ground. Sometimes you see more than one tree together in a kind of shrub. The trees in this particular area do not live a very long time in tree terms. The one in the foreground could be as old as 50 years.

The plant in the pic below is called crowberry. It is an important food source for the wildlife and for people. It is really soft and spongey to walk on. Hiking with Anne and Michael has taught me how much nutrition is provided by the land, even in these harsh environments. 

Crowberry

More to come!