WiseAcre Gardens

 With the weather predicted to be stormy I decided to hang out in my ‘backyard’ instead of heading to the backwoods to go fishing.

 You can’t miss the Grasse River in Morley. The biggest thing in the hamlet is the bridge and the old mill. On the other side of the bridge you’ll find the fire station and across from that a place to park.

 This section of the Grasse river is shallow and rocky. The current is fairly fast with plenty of ripples. Yesterday it was about twice as high with all the rain we’ve had lately and wading the river was quite a challenge. With slippery footing and the strong current I had a hard time keeping my footing.

Looking upriver from the bridge you can just make out where the river begins to get shallow.  Looking downstream from the bridge the shallows fade from sight around a bend in the river. It usually takes me 4 or 5 hours to wade the entire section of shallows. It would take a lot less but almost every cast gets a strike. The river here is full of smallmouth bass. They might run small but they keep you busy I’m not exaggerating when I say I catch a couple dozen 8 – 10 inch bass whenever I fish this section.

Yesterday was no different. Over 30 small bass came to meet me. What was unusual is that no keepers seemed to be willing to go home with me. Usually I manage to catch a few but with the river flowing high all the “holes” seemed to be vacant.  Next time I might get a pic of a whopper. This time I had to settle for a couple wildflower photos.

Canada Anemone – Anemone canadensis

 I was happy to find these – I wanted to get some better photos but forgot to go look and thought i missed them this year. I have a friend who has a meadow filled with them and it’s really a sight to see when they’re in bloom. But it’s out of the way and I never managed to get over there this spring. I will be headed that way now that i’m fishing again. The Oswegatchie River that runs along his property is another great spot to go fishing.

Meadow Rue – Thalictrum

 I’m almost certain this is Tall Meadow-rue (Thalictrum polygamum but it’s size makes me have doubts. Tall meadow-rue is supposed to grow 3 to 8 feet tall but what i found was lucky to pust 2 feet. It was probably the growing conditions that stunted it. These were growing out of bare rock at the shoreline of the river. One other thing - they seem to be blooming early – my field guide has the listed as flowering in July / Sept - close enough I guess not to worry about bloom time being ‘off’.

It comes to mind that so many garden perennials started off on the wild side. Have you noticed how many wild flowers I’ve posted have family members hanging out in someone’s garden?

Now it’s time to ask who can Identify this wildflower? I can’t seem to find it in any of my field guides. It doesn’t mean it’s not there but so far I’m stumped.  It couldn’t have been more than 1 1/2 feet tall but I expect in better conditions it would grow talled. Like the meadow-rue it was growing out of a crak in the rock at the river’s edge.

 The flowers were quite small – about 1/4 inch – maybe a bit larger.  Note the red stems – all the plants had them even on the flower stalks.

There were only a couple of these wildflowers along the whole shoreline. Only one spot along the bank had any and they were pretty beaten up and broken. I was lucky to find one with blooms.

And last but not least I had a spectator during the end of my day on the river. She was surprised to look up and see me. Holding as still as she we stared at each other before I broke the moment by waving. The deer thing took that as a sign to flee. I took it as time to call it a day.