an evening springtime drive

We wanted to go out for a Victoria Day afternoon drive but we didn't head out until 6 in the evening. We kept tossing around the idea of planting our front yard in flowering shrubs and kept our eyes open for creative plantings. I wish I had more pictures to show you of the wonderful spring gardens of Nova Scotia with their flowering Forsythia, Mulberry, Magnolia, Azalea and Cherry trees. But alas...

Instead, a photo documentary of our evening drive to the Look Off on the North Mountain and our subsequent drive over to Blomidon in the drizzle of a verdant spring evening.

From the Look Off looking toward the Minas Basin

The farmland and woodlots spreading south toward the bottom of the Basin

The scrub near the top gives scale to the drop below

The sky, the sea, the land

I get so much pleasure from the mix of farm and woods, the tender greens of spring

Wally stayed in the car, afraid of the height and missed these spectacular views

The undulating lines of a planted field embraced by the arms of the forest

This field holds a particular appeal for me

The patchwork of various plantings

The forest still playing catch up with the greening of the planted fields

The misty drizzle adds a romantic cast to the valley below

neighbouring farms

Some riding horses and a workhorse at pasture

the beautiful pinto

a beautiful group of bays to keep him company

a gentle chestnut by the fence

a wonderful old barn 

what we jokingly refer to as "Mini Blomidon" 

the surprise of a dock for fishing boats and just beyond "Mini Blomidon"

a quirky garden shed, the sea beyond

a fabulous giant of a barn

a young Highland cow samples the tip of a branch 

 

a pretty Jersey cow, bell a-clanking shares the pasture

The Highland Cattle watch as a young heifer ventures near

Suddenly a test of mettle, the young heifer oblivious

a somewhat disinterested locking of horns

and then it's over 

Miss Heifer up to her knees in mud

The winding road we will take to Blomidon that looms beyond

a newly tilled field ready to plant

the charming windbreak

as we get closer

and closer to Blomidon

We did make it to the edge of the park, but by then the light was failing and we decided to turn and come home, satisfied with a most lovely drive in the country. It's days like this we're grateful to our proximity to such a wonderful place as this exquisite Annapolis Valley.

Oh, and we did see lots of beautiful flowering shrubs. 

 Forsythia by the side of the road.

It's such a brief interlude, this budding time of the year.

Who knows what we will see?