Good morning to everyone on this fine Saturday! It is mostly cloudy, but the sun keeps shining now and then. However, the smoke from the forest fires is heavy today, a very strong smell hangs in the air and at times it is quite foggy looking, though it is smoke, not fog. It is recommended to wear masks outdoors when the smoke is this bad. That is understandable.

Thanks to all of you for the many birthday wishes for me yesterday. It was a beautiful day and my friend and I went driving east of town along the highway, stopping in at several smaller lakes along the way. I was able to get some nice pics, a few of which I am showing today. There was some beautiful scenery, as usual, all along our journey, these lakes are really quite amazing.

Our main destination was a lake with a beautiful picnic area. There are a lot of tables to use, including some under a roof for times when it might be showers, or just to stay out of the sun. The water of all these lakes is crystal clear. This particular lake has two types of trout, so it is good for fishing, also nice for a canoe and for swimming.

Though like most of these smaller lakes, they usually have rocky shorelines and no sandy beaches. Some do have small beaches however. At the first lake where we stopped there was an abundance of dragonflies and while I was trying to get a picture of one I stepped into a hole between rocks with my left leg and down I went, sitting on the ground.

Oh my, did that hurt. It did slow me down for the rest of our trip, but I kept going. That pain, however, kept getting worse all the time. And naturally I forgot to bring my painkillers with me. Sigh. Another time I was also after a dragonfly, and got some nice pics of that one, but while I was standing there the ground under me felt rather soft.

Really, it felt like an ant hill, but I was right next to the lake and ants do not generally make their homes so close to the water. However, as I was taking pics I suddenly felt the ants and looked down. My feet and legs were crawling with ants! They were not at all happy with me standing on their home. So, I removed myself rather quickly and brushed the ants off. Sigh.

At another spot I was walking down a rather steep slope and began to slide, so I grabbed a bush next to me and…it happened to be a wild rose bush! They are covered with thousands of small thorns and grabbing them with bare hands is definitely not recommended! It kind of “burns” the hands a bit. Sigh.

In another location I was on my hands and knees trying to get close to a damselfly, they are rather small, and it was sitting on a juniper bush. Now, junipers are rather dry, hard and their leaves, which are like needles on a pine tree, are also hard and dry, and they can scratch and poke right through skin, if you happen to fall into one.

I do not recommend falling into one. It can hurt. I was facing down the side of a rock where this juniper was growing and trying to get closer to the damselfly and my hand slid on the lichen covered rock. Down I went, face first, into this juniper. Sigh. Fortunately I did not damage my camera.

I also did not get a pic of that damselfly. But I got another one later. My dad used to be accident prone, as you know, and now I am. Amazing. When I thought about that I began to laugh, loud and long! I hope you all enjoy your Saturday and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2023 Steve McLeod.