Thrilled to be able to join Elisa on her Friday Nature Walk again......unlimited Internet is making me giddy with the possibilities.......but I digress....
Some of you may have noticed that I spent the last year keeping track of monthly photos of The Mountain.......September 2011 through September 2012 (yes....I am behind by a month or so....working on those posts!).
Well, last spring, I drove past a certain pretty spot several times a week......at different times....and watched the changing of the seasons.....the rising of the sun, the setting of the sun....the sun at high noon........and I was inspired to photo-document this special place. It is about five miles up the road from my house, along a lovely country road....one that the kids and I have always called "the pretty way home."
The photo above was taken last spring, late in the season. That is the main angle that I intend to photo journal. The September version is just below, the first two photos. As you can see, the lake in dried up this late in the summer. Malachy and I took a nature walk with my camera......the results are below.......too bad I can never limit myself to just one or ten or twenty photos.....sigh.
It is a manmade lake.........
so the tree stumps show when all of the water is gone.
These are the mountains from the same range behind my house.
This is the walking path along side and above the lake.
There is a house on the lake......
View to the south......my house is in that direction....
Still do not know what this plant above is....does anyone know?
I have been watching a couple on my road this summer.....
grow bloom, turn to seed pods and now releasing its seed........
Cattails are always cool
It s hard to take a picture to share the beauty of the fall colored grasses
You can see the size of the lake compared to my little man.....
Dried lake bottom.....
The lake has a view of The Mountain
Still just the smallest amount of moisture on part of the lake.....
we have not had rain since mid-June
Deer print
Bear print
Bear print compared to my foot
Lily pads just barely hanging on with that tiny bit of moisture.
These fern prints look ancient
The thirsty lily pads
There were a bunch of little frogs hanging about the moist dirt.....
they were small, about the size of my big toe.
A shrimp-like casing
Token cloud picture.....
Grasses at the bottom of the lake
Blackberry season here......
Bear print in the soft dirt on our path........
probably inspired by all of the blackberries growing adjacent to the path.
Thanks for taking a walk around our new Nature Walk with me!
Autumnal Blessings,
Chari
Oh, what a wonderful walk!! So sad that the lake is dried up, but I can't wait to see it later. And that bear paw..ahhh!!! The tree stumps remind me of the Lorax movie the kids and I recently watched. Kind of sad. Thanks for joining up. You are so blessed to have this treasure place only 5 miles away!
ReplyDeleteElisa......it dries up every single year. I think even dried up it has its own beauty.......I plan to keep track of its process for the whole year....so we can see just how much precip we need to get started. No rain here since the third week of June.
DeleteI am blessed to have found this mostly deserted place. But, I am even more blessed that I have this just by walking behind my house.
I love your new road to walk on......it is very sweet.
PS: I think those are milkweed pods.
ReplyDeleteYeah. You are right. I should have known that. blushing......
Deleteoh my gosh, that bear print is big. what a lovely bunch of photographs.
ReplyDeleteThanks for coming by for a visit, momto5!
DeleteYikes! There was a bear *that* big?? I think I'd head in the other direction!
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting such beautiful shots!
Kaylana (such a pretty name!),
Deletewe never actually saw any bear :).....but the closer I was to the blackberries, the more I was sure we would bump into one.....then I got nerbous and we made out way off the trail to the car.....it was the final paw print in the soft dirt that brought the city girl out in me (born and raised in Los Angeles :) )......
I have studied too much about cougars and bears.....statistically, we are extrememly safe....but emotionally, I get nervous. I try never to be alone. :)