#wild basil

*leaves a bundle of wild basil in the nook outside @sirtin quarters*

[Nikon D7100; AF 105mm Micro-Nikkor F2,8]

Photograph taken on June 20, 2023, at Petroglyphs Provincial Park, Woodview, Ontario, Canada.

I’ve really come to appreciate and cherish the wildness and solitude of Snake Wildlife Management Area. Safely away from the tourist mobs and day hikers that choke the state forest trails on the opposite side of the canyon, I get this lovely place entirely to myself on some evenings. Not completely so this past Saturday, but close enough. The summer wildflowers were in beautiful form during my hike over the weekend (from top): white bergamot (Monarda clinopodia); common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) attended by a great spangled fritillary (Speyeria cybele); black cohosh (Actaea racemosa); common self-heal (Prunella vulgaris), an edible and nutritious summer mint; wild basil (Clinopodium vulgare), yet another edible summer mint; Indian pipe (Monotropa uniflora), a parasitic plant;  eastern teaberry (Gaultheria procumbens); scarlet beebalm (Monarda didyma); black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta), replete with an adorable inchworm; and great rhododendron (Rhododendron maximum), just getting to peak in the canyon.

when Simon wears the gray suit

Photograph taken on July 21, 2023, at Mono Cliffs Provincial Park, Mono, Ontario, Canada.

Photograph taken on June 18, 2023, at Purdon Conservation Area, Lanark Highlands, Ontario, Canada.