Fieldwork - Beach Day!

A friend texted me, "So are you enjoying your summer?"

There was a long pause. 

I had to step back in my mind. Summers are a time for work. Yardwork. Gardening. Production. The children are out of school. We could never afford to travel and I still have never taken a vacation or 'summer holidays'. I'd run my kids to the river or a nearby lake but with three little ones, it was work: packing food and water and juggling a child with aspergers and one kid loves to be in the top of a tree while another loves the water while the other is terrified of bugs. Add to that, I simply cannot tolerate heat.

What was the question? Am I enjoying my summer.

Do I ever, really? I enjoy fall and winter. She was still waiting for my answer. "Have you been taking off to the your cabin? So lucky!" If you know me, I don't answer with small talk. I answer with honest responses. So I replied, "When I work enough to be able to take days off to get out there, we go out there to work on the building." There's still no power, no running water, no walls... lol. A shit tonne of yard work.

It was Thusday. The forecast was 35C. It ended up being 37C. I was booked to work the Youth Drop in at the Art Museum in the afternoon, which was perfect since my rental has only the little air conditioner I bought.

I asked myself, "So Monika? Am I enjoying my summer?" So far, I'm navigating around research and making sure I have clean black socks for my next shift. Let the dog out. Let the dog in. Water the garden. Scoop poop. Weed the garden. What day is it? Did I miss the garbage truck? Pick the beans. Is there enough dirty clothes to do a load of laundry? What will I cook tonight to make sure everyone is fed? I mean, I don't hate my summer. But I'm navigating through. I'm not enjoying. It's just same old, same old. The mail carrier came. Is that a bill or a payment?

Fuck it. I can't wait around for someone to come ask me to play. So I know that my favourite way to enjoy summer is to swim in the river, I did just that. I packed up my camera, blanket, water for me and the dog, put sunscreen on my nose and by 10 am I WAS ENJOYING SUMMER.

South Saskatchewan River, me, summer.

There were other people out there (you can see someone on the island there) and a family back in the other direction. In a few spots, you can walk across at only knee deep. Basically, if you can't see the bottom, you don't go there. The current is fast. Here in this part, there are so many sand bars / islands and contained pools of water, it's really quite a lovely spot. Buddy and I played and swam for a good hour.

I remember taking my kids to the river one evening in the city to cool off. The sun was setting and I was trying to convince my kids it was time to leave. An older woman came to the spot where we were, said hello, and got in. She swam back and forth very slowly a couple times and then got out again. I asked her, "do you come here often?" She told me she gets into the river every day she can. I'll never forget her. I wonder what was holding me back from enjoying a swim all by myself.

Well. I've had enough of that. I'm swimming whenever I can.

I'm not used to having time for me. This is a new thing. Instead of work to be able to play, I'm going to start playing to be able to work. Be curious so I can work. Relax so I can work. Rejuvenate so I can work. Not the other way around. It doesn't work the other way around. 

After some sun, wind, sand, and water, my head was clear, my heart was beating and my spirit was enjoying. Here's some lovelies I captured while out there. More roots!!

I'm standing at the low river's edge, facing the first bank.

If you look behind, you can see a row of trees in the distance in the photo above. Those trees are sitting up on a higher cliff with the face also exposed like this one.

view upstream

The roots from the plants above run all the way down and are exposed at the water level. It's so amazing to see!

Then walking around up on top, I took more photos.

I'm so glad I looked or I would have never noticed these. Blooms? I'll have to go back in a few days to see what becomes of these.

And there were these little wee things also. I thought they were pretty.

a cluster of something (?)

OH! PSA In Canada, there's a program right now that's time sensitive. The Nature Conservancy of Canada is asking for your photos of plant, animal, bird and insect species. You can sign up and upload so that they can get a literal snapshot of the species across the country. Brilliant really. 

BACKYARD BIO BLITZ

I'm doin' it! xo

~Monika K.

Mid Summer

August 1st marks the midpoint between Summer and Fall. In some cultures, it was celebrated at 'First Harvest'. If you ask my beans and zucchini, they'll tell you it's the 4th harvest. Despite the devastating drought, some things are growing and blooming and the bees don't mind at all.

Dandelion in my yard.

My son and I took a drive down Valley Road and the crops looked so dry. I stopped for some roadside pictures and it was unreal how filthy the flowers were from lack of rain as they sit by the dusty grid road. I did manage to photograph over the ditch and into a past-bloom flax field for this shot.

Happy in the dust without much of a drink.

It was so nice to cool off in the river. It was hot out and we jumped right in. The water was nice, and some folks were walking across. It's moving fast but it's shallow. It comes from the Rocky Mountains and runs all the way to the Atlantic via the Hudson Bay in Manitoba. We met some tourists from Berlin, and one asked how far he would go. I joked that it would at least carry him home. lol

Looking back at the river bank, this was an interesting vantage point.

Wolf Willow at the top, layers of earth exposed (mostly sand).

It's interesting how the land wears away in the shape of bricks that are stacked. How does that happen? 

As we walked along in the water, we could see holes where birds lived inside the cliff face.

Look here, this was a great find! This is a new plant I had not seen before, but then again, I haven't gone searching around the water before.

Arrowhead at the edge of the South Saskatchewan River

We didn't see any wild life, but back in the city, we have huge jack rabbits everywhere. Three massive pelicans were sailing in circles over my yard the other day, and our entire neighborhood has Peregrine Falcons training up their young. If you are in Saskatoon, yes, that's the noisy 'screaming' you're hearing all the time. Apparently these birds were once on a watch list for being at risk. Now they have found new life on city rooftops. They hunt pigeons, smaller birds and dragonflies, if you can fathom that one!

Fastest recorded species on the planet when they dive-bomb.

By the end of the day, there was a full moon. That moon was a Super Moon! And as night set in, the lightning began. The thunder rumbled for a long time and then finally, the sky let go and WOW did it ever RAIN.

I guess the flowers got a good rinse after all.

xo

Monika K.

Perennial Parallels pt 2

I haven't come to a decision about my grant project on whether I'll include any plant I come across, or only native plants. I do know that if I chose both, I will identify which are original to prairie and which are not.

Part of me finds the current snapshot of what is growing here to be a good story, and in ways, a good parallel to us. Some plants have always been here. Their roots run deep. They are just made for this place. Some were introduced from other parts of the world. Some are simply not cut out for this climate and can't thrive. There are particular non-native plants which are invasive, destructive, and choke out indigenous plants. Consider that today, we are pulling Indigenous bodies out of the ground from the 'destructive invaders'. The parallels are undeniable to me. And then there are perennials that come from other lands that flourish in this ecoregion and are able to coexist. They now feed the birds, bees and wildlife side by side. Plants and people. Same, same.

Tansy in the Ditch. Naturalized, "Invasive weed"
You see how nothing else can grow with it?

Honestly, the source images I have taken in the past 15 years have been unedited in my landscape art. I have simply been drawn to the general compositions or plays of colours in the foreground (which are the sprays of flora in the ditches).

Me 5 yrs ago, Sweet Clover (naturalized from Europe)

I recall one very key solo exhibition I had in 2018, where someone stopped me twice to scold me for including invasive species. I listened. I let her speak and educate me. She was very passionate. I stood there like a dummy and all I could say was, "I just liked the colours and I wanted to stitch it." lol It's truly the only explanation I had. (I saw it. It was pretty.) I thanked her for the information. I took her pamphlet. I went to speak to other guests at the reception, and she came back again to start it all over. (THAT was difficult.) I didn't want to argue but I did have other guests who wanted to speak with me.

It's a passionate topic. I get it now.

Coincidentally, the plant she was referring to was the thistle currently being pulled at Meewasin. The ironic part is that I misidentified it! It was Purple Prairie Clover en mass, which is an original prairie plant. Remember this one?

Large threadpainting, now a small greeting card

In my ignorance, I stand by my word. I just thought it was pretty. : ) So I made art.

Hmmm. Perhaps THAT is a good parallel there. I caused trouble by not doing my research, and mislabeling something. We all know how social media works around that! I learned my lesson. I'll cross reference everything.

I think in this next body of work, however, I will acknowledge the Parallels. They present important questions, and maybe the parallels will present clues to solutions. How do we stop destroying, how do we protect, and how do we rebuild?

We can learn a lot from the plants.

~Monika K.

(always learning!)

The Power of Prairie

Perennials are magic. I'm learning that more and more. I read about how they are 'built to last'. For this particular region, I see the phrase, 'drought-tolerant' over and over in the descriptions of prairie flora. We have years of wonderful rain and always have our sunshine year round. However, the last two years have definitely been drought years. It is evident by the way the elm trees are overproducing seeds. That yard at the cabin has a couple inches of caked elm seed layered over it.

The prairie grasses in mid July here are not green. They are crunchy and yellow when you walk through it. It LOOKS just like late September. Doesn't it?

July 2023

The grasses are fine. They aren't near-death like a lawn. They have massive root systems below that are alive and well, living all winter long. I assume, like the Elm, the plants are over-producing as well? It sure looks abundant, even though it is not green.

Will you look at this! In this drought, there is colour! Perennial flora xo

Dotted Blazing Star. They were EVERYWHERE.

Dry July, Blazing Stars don't mind.

And the bees were happy.

Next, we (my boy Florian and me) spied red. Once you spot red, you see it everywhere. It was like a spray of bright beads across a long dip in the land.  WOW - it was ripe wild Raspberries!

Wild Raspberries, low to the ground. Ripe!

As dry as it was, there were loads of berries on hundreds and hundreds of foot high bushes like this, but only in the low lying parts. Perhaps that's how they get their moisture, even from morning dew. There was so much fruit, it was unbelievable. The wildlife must love it. (I picked one for my son to taste. He's my wildlife.) xo

Harebells in the breeze

Skeleton Weed in the Wolf Willow

The Wild Roses have been absolutely prolific this year. This isn't a representational picture. We had a very hard downpour lastnight with thunder and lightning (finally!!) and so most of the big beautiful petals were likely pulled off by the raindrops.

More buds blooming in a moment of sun.

There are still so many young plants out on the prairie, just full of little rose buds. We'll have many more coming.

New growth during a drought.

And at the same time, the ones that have already bloomed this year have transformed into beautiful, big fruits!! Look at this!

Rosehips in hand, Licorice in back.

There were so many more flowers: Alfalfa, Blue Lettuce, Goldenrod, and blues and yellows that I can't identify yet. And then we waited for this little dude to land for a photo op.

? Male Celastrina ?

So there you go. This was a good Field Work day. If you were to drive down the grid road, and had glanced to the side and this is what you saw...

... you wouldn't know if was full of all sorts of flowers, raspberries, butterflies, roses and bumblebees. 

 The Prairie is not empty. She is abundant.

 The Prairie is beautiful. If not, then you likely haven't seen her. Like my mom used to say, "If you can't see the beauty, then you're not looking."

 The Prairie is alive. She's thriving. She is perennial.

 The Prairie is vital. She is essential to life on this planet. (This last point is all new to me. I'm learning.)

~Monika

additional point - hey, this is an early morning blog post. It reads like my private journal to myself and if it comes across as preachy, that's not my intention. It's my private poetry at the end, like a heartsong that is sacred to me, and not meant for any other purpose. I am by no means a perfect steward of this planet. Far from it! As a woman, I find parallels. As an artist, I can share portraits of the Prairie's beauty.

The People Who Love The Prairie

This just keeps getting better. The timing of everything that could possibly be connected with my research portion of the Canada Council for the Arts grant opportunity is outstanding. Like, knockin' it out of the park!

Oftentimes as I head to my part time job at the museum, I have CBC radio playing in my van. There's no commercials. It's mostly art, music, literature, science, news stories, interviews, comedy. Last week, as I was driving, I think I was floating! There was an announcement about a highly detailed collection of around 70,000 specimens of plants at the University of Regina (that's where I graduated from!). Not everyone knows it's there. The man who created the collection in 1954 was George F. Ledingham. He retired last century but never stopped collecting specimens from the Prairie Grasslands. After his passing in 2006, this collection, named the Ledingham Herbarium, started to be digitized by current students and faculty. BRILLIANT, because honestly, without it being digitized, it remains a private collection and not a public one.

You can see more examples of the collection here.

20,000 of these plants are directly from the Saskatchewan landscape. Some extend in to the grasslands of neighboring privinces and states, but the collection is housed here in my province. 

Fun fact: approximately 20,000 of these specimens are mosses and lichens! Wow. Who knew? 50,000 of the 70,000 are vascular plants. 

The announcement went public because the Saskatchewan-specific collection is done being scanned and should be publicly available for viewing by the end of the year. (yesssssssssssss!)

George F. Ledingham Herbarium

Remember my dear friend and mentor Margot Lindsay? I was so excited to pass this news on to her. I don't thing k she gets out to see the prairie in person as often as she did when she was younger, but I know it warms her heart to hear that people still care about the plants and the preservation of the land.

Here is a lovely interview with one of the women overseeing the project. Enjoy!

Brief Interview with Dr. Mel Hart: Saskatchewan Flora Goes Digital

~Monika