Slumping Curves and River Bends

My sister, Clare, and I went for a walk at Beaver Creek this morning. Summer in Saskatchewan is a delight. The grass comes alive with tiny flowers – prairie rose, flax, scarlet mallow, vetch – and the air is perfumed with wolf willow blossoms.

Wolf willow always reminds me of WallaceStegner’s book of the same name about his childhood in southwestern Saskatchewan. Wolf willow has silver leaves and yellow blossoms with a very distinctive scent. They grow abundantly in Saskatchewan. According to the Alberta Plant Watch, Blackfoot Indians used the yellow-and-brown-striped seeds to create necklaces and the bark to make berry baskets.

Beaver Creek Conservation Area, 13 km south of Saskatoon, is one of the few uncultivated short grass prairie sites in Saskatchewan. The land slumps in gentle curves towards the river, and the creek meanders its way around and about. There are beavers and deer and room to breathe.

Beaver Creek jun09

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