Bruce Trail - Map 3 to 4, Niagara Section, and The Watering Can.

 We have had a wet, windy and cool spring but the day of our first Bruce Trail hike of 2022 was perfect - sunny, about 16 degrees, no bugs. We met at a parking area on the side of the road where I parked my car and then Dave dropped us at our starting point.

No leaves on the trees yet meant that we had great views and the sun could reach the ground

warming all the spring

flowers

popping up.

The sun also illuminated the moss

with it's little companion plants.

I crouched down to take a shot of these flowers and found that I couldn't get back up (I need to start doing squats)

Nic came over to give me a hand. I should never of given her my camera first as she took great pleasure in taking the picture when I fell over backwards.

Pictures were taken while bending from the waist,

not the knees,

after that.

We could hear the waterfall well before we saw it.

We came out onto a road and sat on a rock, with a river behind us and open fields in front to have our "lunch".

From here

we had 2km of road to walk, past

vineyards and

the view of downtown Toronto, across the lake.

Then it was back into the woods for another couple of kilometres. At times it was very rocky,

muddy,

slippery and

the rivers were all full and fast.

In total we did about 8km in about 3 hours. It was probably our most relaxed walk. Maybe because the weather was perfect, it was a weekday so nobody else on the trail, it was the right length (felt like an accomplishment without being in pain at the end) but probably because Nicky is now retired and there isn't the same kind of intensity as there was when she was fitting hiking in, between other obligations.

We contemplated just heading home but a friend of Nicky's had recommended a local restaurant so we decided to celebrate our first hike of the year.

Well, the Watering Can Flower Market in Vineland,

was quite a find. We wandered in to it looking for the restaurant (which was right at the back) exclaiming at all the plants that we had never seen before.

Each table and chairs set was unique (they looked like thrift store finds) and buffered from the other customers by huge tropical plants. We shared a salad and a grilled cheese (Provolone cheese, caramelized onions and apple butter) and a couple of iced lattes. There was also an extensive bakery that we resisted.

The amazing variety of plants wasn't the best part, it was the creative displays.

They had the best selection of garden pots I have ever seen,

tons of cacti, succulents and

tropicals but their selection of outside plants was much smaller, perhaps we were too earl;y in the season.