Purple and green were the colours of the month for April 2021: Wildflower blooms, sea life at low tide, gardening progress, and a surprise visit from the northern lights were among the highlights this month.
Camas flowers have started to bloom, and since they are my favourite flower, my heart is happy! I’m making it my goal to photograph as many wildflowers as I can over the next few weeks as they reach their peak blooms.
Garry Oak Ecosystems are some of the endangered ecosystems in Canada, and the few preserved Garry Oak Meadows we have in the area are truly magical places. Prior to colonization in the 1800s, this section of unceded land on which I live and work would have been one such place. Over the next few months (and years) I will be working to restore a section of the yard to a Garry Oak Meadow, with camas flowers being a main feature.
It can take anywhere from 3-5 years for camas to bloom when grown from seed, but they are well worth the wait. This is an excellent article about camas flowers and their importance to the Songhees (Lekwungen) First Nations and the impact that colonization continues to have on this culturally significant resource and food system.
The ocean has meadows too! Although it might look like it, eelgrass is not actually a seaweed. Rather, eelgrass is a perennial flowering plant that plays a crucial role in balancing the ecosystem of the Salish Sea by acting as a critical habitat for dozens of fish and shellfish species, providing foraging grounds for seabirds, and stabilizing shorelines. Eelgrass communities are increasingly at risk so if you come across a patch at low tide, make sure to walk around it and not through it - and encourage other beachgoers to do the same.
As a child growing up on the beaches of Vancouver Island, sea stars were a delightfully common sight - clinging to rocks at low tide, tucked away in tidepools, their bright colours easy to spot against the grey and rocky coastline. In 2013 the ochre sea star population in the Salish Sea was one of several species of sea stars in the Pacific Northwest ravaged by Starfish Wasting Syndrome. The disease caused a mass die-off of sea stars in the Salish Sea, which was devastating to witness in real time. While scientists still have yet to identify a determinate cause of the disease, it’s believed increased ocean temperatures are a major contributing factor. It’s only been very recently (within the last year or two) that I’ve started seeing healthy sea stars again during my walks at low tide.
It might just be coincidence but it seems like every time I get a notification that the Northern Lights might be visible, the skies are clouded over. However….this month, an unseasonably week of warm temperatures and clear skies happened to coincide with a “moderate” solar storm (Kp 6) on the night of April 16/17, and the Northern Lights were visible as far south as Northern Oregon! I managed to catch the tail end of some lights, which was magical. I drove down to a nearby beach and realized I had grabbed the wrong lens and had almost zero battery charge left…but pointed my camera due north and hoped for the best!
The University of Alberta runs a website called Aurora Watch where you can sign up for notifications when there’s an increased chance of seeing the Northern Lights based on solar activity. There’s also a great Facebook group called Aurora Borealis Washington State that I use as a reference for when I should head out with my camera - if the lights are out in Washington, they’re out in British Columbia...weather dependent, that is!
I had a little bit of a garden mishap while prepping some seed starts earlier this month involving a hose bursting over several seed envelopes. Not wanting to waste the seeds (which were quickly completely and totally drenched) I decided to start them all, and give away the extras to friends and neighbours, since I won’t have enough garden space for, well… let’s just say WAY too many cucumber and squash plants!
Until next year, April.