I did the Cape Split hike earlier today to see how the wildflowers were doing. It was a wonderful day. I went all the way (using the blue trail) to the end of the trail. The wildflowers are getting close to their peak, and I think we’ll see quite a show on our field trip on Saturday. There were no black flies, and the temperature was just about perfect for the long hike. The blue trail is 6 km long and the yellow trail is almost 8 km long and a bit more challenging than the blue trail.

Only a very few Red Trilliums are in bloom, most of them only have buds and I suppose they’ll be in full bloom on Saturday.

We’ll meet at 10:00 am at the Cape Split Trailhead in Scots Bay. The trip to Scots Bay is about 1.5 hours from Halifax, so you might need to start your day at 8:30 am. Please email me the signed field trip waiver. You can find it on our website – just click on this link and you’ll see the links to the field trip waivers on the right side of the screen. Depending on the resolution of your screen, you might need to scroll down.

The first three kilometers of the trail is taking us through coniferous forest and not wildflowers can be seen there. But you might see some birds, hare, or other animals. The best flower show is between 3.5 and 5 km. Before you decide to hike all the way to the end of the trail, consider that you’ll need to hike back to your car after reaching the end of the trail. I got quite tired by the time I got back to the, car and it took six hours…

Please bring enough water with you, some snacks and of course your camera, memory card(s) and tripod. You might want to bring insect repellent as the black flies might come out by next weekend. We will have rain almost every day next week, so the trail will be still wet on Saturday and the sun will peek out from behind the clouds on Saturday only… the temperature will be between 5 and 12 degrees on Saturday, so please dress accordingly.

Do not bring a drone! When we reached the end of the trail, to my surprise, a guy was flying a drone not far above the nesting gulls. He was disturbing wildlife and other hikers and endangering them as well. He was flying the drone only a couple of meters from other hikers and it is illegal to fly drones within 30 meters from other people. He did bring down the drone (to about 3 meters from me) after I asked if he had permit for flying the drone there…

If you have any questions, please contact me.

Laszlo Podor
PGNS President

Meeting at 10 am in the parking lot for Hirtle’s Beach at 318 Hirtle Beach Road in Kingsburg, Lunenburg County. (There are two outhouses at the parking lot which are open.) Please note if you are travelling from Lunenburg on Route 332 there is a detour that will take you along Indian Path Road. It is well marked. The beach is about 3 kilometers long. Gaff Point Trail starts at the west end of the beach. The trail is of moderate difficulty so not everyone may wish to hike the trail which is fine. The trail is well marked. I will be hiking the trail and folks are welcome to tag along with me if they prefer.

Low tide will be at 1.43 p m.

Information about Hirtle’s Beach and Gaff Point Trail is available on several websites including: Lunenburg, all trails and natureconservancy.

I plan to pack a lunch. Alternatively, the Rose Bay Store and Bistro at 3452 Highway 332 is about a ten-minute drive from the Beach. You may wish to stop there on the way to the Beach. As you come along Highway 332, the store is a stone’s throw beyond the intersection where you turn right onto the Kingsburg Road.

We are planning to wrap up no later than 5 pm so folks have time to get home for Peter Steeper’s seminar.

Please do not attend the Field Trip if you are not feeling well. Field Trip Waivers (from our website) are required for participants. Please email me a Waiver or bring a hard copy along on the day. Thank you.

A packed lunch, water, sturdy footwear, sunscreen and, depending on temperature, possibly insect repellant may be useful. A refresher on ticks can be found here. If the field trip is canceled due to poor weather, an email notice via our Guild Google Group Email will be sent by 8 pm on Saturday, October 22nd.

Please contact me if you have any questions.
I hope you are able to join us.

regards,
Dean

This year’s Macro Photography Field Trip is at 3:00 pm on Saturday, 18th June.
Location: the gardens around our home in the Fall River area.

There are plenty of reasons for attending this field trip:


• This will be this season’s last PGNS field trip
• 2022 is the Year of the Garden in Canada
• June 18, 2022 is the National Garden Day
• June 18 is recognized as Garden Day in HRM as a legacy of Canada’s Year of the Garden 2022
• “Gardens in HRM” is the theme of this year’s HRM Trophy competition.

Please send me an e-mail, if you are planning to come. I will send my home address and directions to you upon receiving your e-mail. This field trip will be limited to our PGNS membership only.

I will need the signed Field Trip Waiver e-mailed me the day before the field trip. Here is the link to the waiver. I prefer the emailed copy to save some trees, but if your preference is different, you can print out the waiver and bring it with you. Please do not forget about this, as you would not be able to join the group without this waiver. 
If you do not feel well for any reason, please do not attend the field trip.

The weather forecast shows it’ll be cloudy, 18 degrees with some chances of rain. Optimal for macro shooting. It’ll be an exciting afternoon, you will have an acre of gardens for practicing your macro or close-up photography skills. We have the front yard flower garden, moss garden, rock gardens, woodland. Many of the 67 rhododendron bushes are still flowering. We have lots of other flowering plants and in total you have over 450 species of plants to choose from, not to mention all those ants, bees, butterflies, dragonflies, spiders and other insects – especially mosquitoes, if you shoot in the woodland area…

If you have not been at our place here are a few pictures. These images were taken earlier this week: backyard, front yard, Azalea flower, rhododendron stigma macro, Iris, Thyme macro
, Geranium flower macro.



Please bring your camera, macro lens, extension tubes, flash, reflector, and tripod. Do not worry if you don’t have a macro lens – there are plenty of larger subjects to shoot…

Although the start time is set to 3:00 pm, if you want to, you can come as early as 1:00 pm. 
We will keep shooting until your time, the darkness or the mosquitoes will chase you away.
I would suggest to posting some of the images to our PGNS Flickr group (Flickr account is free). Darryl will need one or two of your images for our website gallery.

Hope to see you here!
Laszlo