What is growing here?
Big trees here are in a whole different category…
Maple Ridge of course has lots of maples! People have gorgeous Japanese maples lighting up their front yards in brilliant red. But wen we are hiking we see something else entirely. Some of the fallen maple leaves we are seeing on the ground are a good 12 inches across. We have never seen anything like it! It really does feel like something out of prehistoric times. Apparently it is from the Bigleaf Maple, native to the west coast in North America, and rare in other areas. Hardy to zone 7 ish maybe, lower in spots, but it seems to grow near creek beds or sheltered areas with conifers or lots of shrubs. Now that would be an amazing plant to cultivate in my garden at home!!! Just 30 m tall, and lives less than 200 years. So just a baby out here! (Just a note – I can order myself one of these from Fraser Thimble Farms – on Salt Spring Island in BC! No guarantee I can figure out how to keep it alive though!!!) 
Otherwise – heading into the mountains there are lots of fir trees (Cedars and spruce so tall they block out all the light.) They actually categorize trees here by centuries! Old growth trees are 200 – 1000 years old!
Something else a bit unexpected – at the local farmers market they were selling Okanagan apples and pears. Huge juicy fruits that were fantastic! And in the local grocery stores I could still get baskets of blue grapes, way past the growing season in Ontario’s Niagara region! Apparently the Okanagan region is the perfect growing paradise, with great soil, a long growing season and the perfect amount of rain. It gets 300 days of sunshine per year! Apparently we should have gone there, hahahaha.
For some reason I’m captivated by mushrooms and fungus! They all just look so cool – although some of them put me in mind of something out of The Last of Us …
Also - I seem to have developed a new interest in moss! I thought I had a lot of moss in my back yard, but nope! Nothing like this...
