Just as I go out every day for some form of exercise, Daegan also goes out. In his case he goes to search for local historical sites, see what he can find with his metal detector or to simply spend time in a place where trees vastly outnumber humans. In essence, this is his life:
Yesterday when he got back from a walk he told me that the next time I go running there was something I needed to see. We both go to the ravine often enough he only needed to say to “go to the pine grove near the swampy spot” and I knew what he was talking about.
“It looks like it’s snowing there”
And so today at lunch I go outside, down the steep bank by the bridge, and then further down the steep bank past the first mountain bike path to the second one at the base of the hill next to the river. In 10 minutes I’m there and I see exactly what he means. I’m not sure what plants are responsible for this but there are cottony seeds – like big dandelion seeds floating in the air and the ground is coated in them. It really does look a little like snow – or like someone cut open a bunch of feather pillows. It is beautiful.
So today’s message is to always take your son’s advice when it comes to nature.
Unfortunately the seeds actually floating in the air are too small to show up in the photo but it feels almost like that moment when snow just starts falling before the storm really gets going.
Go Outside Today 
It turns out that cottonwood makes my throat sore. After years of maintaining that I do not have allergies, Charlie pointed out to me that it happens every time it snows cottonwood.
Wow – that’s interesting. I hadn’t heard of that. I also thought “This looks like cottonwood” but thought we didn’t have any here in Ontario. Little did I know…
Isn’t it cottonwood?
It could be! I’m not good with plants. Nearly every identification I make other than, say, a maple tree or dandelion is done by software đŸ™‚ !
Yes. I have the app PlantSnap which is a great help.
I use Plantnet – same idea and so brilliant.