Lilac Festival Treasure: Millenium Trail

No matter the bad weather and mixed fare at the Warkworth Lilac Festival of 2012, the town and county have a great treasure in the Millenium Trail. And its not just the many  Lilac  gardens and plantings. The trail itself has been upgraded with gravel fillings near its end where the winter thaw can sometime reek havoc on the walkway. As well there are strategically placed shelters and a Gazebo, rest benches and best of all  Salt Creek meandering always nearby with otters, trout, heron and the constant chatter of various birds. Here is what was to be seen on a pleasant and soothing Sunday walk along the Millenium Trail this last week.

Lilacs Showing Many Faces

the show put on by the Lilacs was diminished at the beginning of the trail but by the time you got to the Gazebo the Lilac beds had become much more vigorous. This was abit surprising given the cool, damp and sometimes snow weather all Spring and even well into May. Also Salt Creek was running high making the bogland around it “moist”.  But as you can see below the end of trail Lilacs were in fine form.
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Lilacs and the Wildflowers

Maybe its the regular Spring Fling, but one could easily conclude that the local Wildflowers were putting on a show just to rival the Lilacs. See for yourself below.
[flagallery gid=5 skin=default name=Gallery2] And the widlflowers in turn helped attract a host of bumblebees and butterflies.

Lilacs and Butterflies

Warkworh beekeepers are no strangers to the blight attacking honey bees – many of the hives in the area have seen large losses of bees.  . So to an extent it was not asurprise to see many Bummblebees among the Lilacs. But this year we got a bonus butterflies large and small. And for some reason they were swarming the Lilacs at the far end of the Millennium Trail. Needless to say , some fancy images of butterflies at work ensued.
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With the butterflies there was not just a little art in the air along the Millennium Trail.

Lilac Art

One of  the theme of this year’s Lilac Festival was the influence of 19th century French art on the wider lifestyle and gardening scene.. So the LilacFestival built some woood sculpture cut-outs from famous French artists and placed them among the Lilac beds. In turn, this photofinisher, borrowing the inspiration rendered some of the Lilacs seen in the Impressionist and style with the help of Corel Painter 12 and other photo-editing programs.
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In sum, the Warkworth Lilac Festival has helped to bring a wonderful walk to the area where early Spring will offer pleasing views, pleasant rest stops, and a chance to follow the Creek on its way to the Trent and then onto Lake Ontario. And we shall return for some of the Summer and Fall rewards to be found on the Millenium Walk – a place to find more than exercise but overall wellness.