A Wonderful Sunny Day!

So, here I was thinking of working on my thesis chapter all weekend. It was supposed to rain and besides I NEED to get it DONE! However, I awoke Sunday morning to a beautiful sunny day that I just couldn't resist...I mean who could with an average of 5-6 days of rain a week since May!So I got up early and made Sherrie's (at Twenty-Two Pleasant) best bread ever (get recipe here) which need to cool off before eating...so what better way to let the bread cool than to go for a hike!!!
We went to Polly Cove, which is near Peggy's Cove, which for those of you not from NS is along the Atlantic Coast about 30 min drive Southwest of Halifax. It is quite a unique place. The landscape is called barrens. This is because it is really rocky with low lying shrubs in the areas where a very thin layer of soil has accumulated. There are a few trees but they are generally stunted due to the low amount of soil and large amounts of salt in the air from all the storms! The photo above is along the path in to the Cove.
This is the view of the Cove which is somewhat sheltered and had more trees. This was our view over our delicious lunch of hummus, pita, cheese and fruit. Check out the more exposed island on the right side of the photo...not a tree in sight.
This is the view of the very exposed peninsula we hiked to. The plants that do live there are quite interesting indeed. In the low lying areas where some soil accumulates it is quite boggy and nutrient poor so we have this carnivorous plant called the Pitcher Plant.
The leaves form a tube (redish) where water accumulates inside and the plant secretes digestive enzymes to make it a toxic mix for any unsuspecting insects that may happen to fall inside. How does it get insects inside you ask? Well some do just fly in for shelter BUT if you look closely at the green inner lip of the entrance there are fine downward pointing hairs (click on photo to enlarge and you will see this), so anything that lands on this part actually slips and falls in. This is how the plant supplements the nutrients it cannot get from the soil. Pretty cool eh?
It also happened that they were blooming and have really cool flowers!
The rocks were also covered in lichens. These are considered fungus but in reality are a mutually beneficial relationship between algae and fungus. The algae cell lives inside the fungus and photosynthesizes giving the fungus some of the sugars produced from harvesting sunlight in exchange for other essential elements and nutrients. The diversity of lichens is astounding...
The only bits of rock you see in this photo are the little pinkish bits, everything else (black, grey, different greens) is different species of lichens!

Once we finished our hike we headed back to town with a short stop at Chocolate lake (named so for the Chocolate factory that used to be on its shores) to take a refreshing dip. It was unusually hot at Polly Cove. Typically the South wind off the 12 degree Celcius water keeps the coast cool, but no breeze on that day!
We headed down to an outdoor concert and while listening to the music I noticed a huge fog bank just waiting to envelop us once the land got cool enough. So we headed down to the waterfront to get our ice cream before the chilly fog moved in....headed home and munched on some delicious bread while watching season 6 of The X-Files.

Have an excellent Friday! :)