Dandelions, Marsh Marigolds and Cattails

Spring time is here and the new plants are inevitably accompanied by dandelions.

These first image is at a peach orchard on Lake Street in St Catharines, Ontario, (yes that is how you spell St Catharines). These orchards are becoming less common, particularly since the closing this month of the last fruit packing plant in the province. Seems it is cheaper to import the fruit and then use loopholes in labeling laws to claim a deceptively high Canadian content. Go figure!

The second and third images are of dandelions among grape vines. This vinyard is on top of the Niagara Escarptment just south of the town of Grimsby. There is a significant wine industry in this area and that is also adding to the pressure to pull out tender fruit orchards as farmers caught between a rock and a hard place seek crops that can in fact pay the way.

While returning from a family function in the Shelburne area, we passed a marsh with a large patch of Marsh Marigolds. Thanks to that, the fourth and fifth images.

Finally, the last remnants of the 2007 crop of Cattails stood up just a little longer behind the dam in Rockwood.

Spring is here.