Arts Day at Lone Pine Marsh

The Northumberland Land Trust hosts events on their reserves pretty well every month. Yesterday, was the annual Arts Day at the Lone Pine Marsh reserve, north east of Colborne.

It was cool out when an artist friend and I arrived. There were just a few folks there and we lucked out and got a guided tour of the south end of the property, led by one of the property's stewards.

The first little gem that our guide spotted was this tiny tree frog. They like to sit on milkweed leaves and peruse their domain. That's one way of narrowing down how to find them. Look for milkweeds.

Milkweeds were also the restaurant of choice for monarch caterpillars. I love how it latches on to the thick centre vein of the milkweed leaf and then muches its way down to the bottom.

Our sponsor yesterday was the colour yellow. Yellow was everywhere. It looks like we all go the memo to wear the complementary colour, blue. 🥴

A yellow bumblebee, resting inside a goldenrod flower was spotted by one of our eagle-eyed walkers.

The artists and photographers who attended this year spread out over the property. One sat along a mowed pathway and painted there.

And, this one took advantage of the raised lookout over the marshy area to photograph whatever birds and animals and bugs they could see.

We chose to sit comfortably on picnic tables in the pavilion and picked specimens to paint. I think the name of the flower I painted is Coreopsis tripteris. In any case, I found some seeds to take home, stratify this winter, and plant next spring for our re-wilded areas. I'll figure out the name when they bloom in two to three years.

Future events from the Land Trust are listed on their website.