Finally Back to the Lake

 

You might remember that at the beginning of May I hurt my leg and was diagnosed with ITBS (iliotibial band syndrome). After stretching brought some relief but didn't result in healing, my GP referred me to PT. I tried to get into the PT practice that helped me after my knee surgery, but they canceled my first appointment 90 minutes before it with the reasoning that they don't accept referrals from my doctor's network anymore. As you can imagine, I was livid! Thankfully my GP referred me to a different PT which had an opening two weeks later and today, I "graduated" from 9 weeks of PT. The leg isn't 100%, but so much better. I will continue doing my home program, confident that it will further help me. 

The wonderful outcome is that I can walk again. So a couple weeks ago I went for a short, 30-minute walk at the lake - finally! 

It felt so good to put on my hiking boots again.

I chose one of my favorite trails. You can see the lake through the trees.

This is my favorite tree, an old crooked oak, overgrown with poison oak at its base.

A bird feather and an acorn on the ground.

Often there are people who fish from the pier at the boat launch.

Then I saw this little American Mink. I had never seen one before, and I first thought it was a baby otter since there are otters in the lake. But no, my research told me it's an American Mink. S/he had just caught a small crayfish.

Since I was there last, the Water Hyacinth has spread considerably. It is a very invasive, non-native plant. Its flowers look beautiful, but I wish it wasn't there.

Blackberry bushes loaded with berries lined the path along the water. These are quite invasive as well.

It had felt so good to be back again. Since then I have taken a few more walks in favorite places that I missed so much over most of the summer. More about that sometime in the future.

At the Lake Again

 

This week I walked around the lake again, in the company of good friends. The weather has been sunny, but breezy and not very warm, but perfect for walking. The lake was very still which made for beautiful reflections in the water.

These two Canada Geese were busy with their morning hygiene routine.

Suddenly there was rapid movement on the lake. Thankfully my friend Kris was fast enough to capture a picture of a Red-winged Blackbird and what I think is a Green Heron.

A little bit further down the lake another Canada Goose was swaggering along the dock.

My favorite tree... crooked, of course, and with lots of Poison Oak growing up its trunk.

We thought this tree has a face and looks like a rhino.

Along Fisherman's Trail we saw this beauty, a Black-Crowned Night Heron.

There are so many beautiful places at the lake. We are so very fortunate to have this here.

When we left, the Canada Geese were still busy with preening.

This post's tree and bird faces are for Nicole's Friday Face Off.

At 66, Life is just Beginning

 

Last week I turned 66 - in German we would say this is a Schnapszahl ("liquor number" meaning repdigit). There is a song by Austrian singer Udo Jürgens called "Mit 66 Jahren" (at 66 years) and one line goes "Mit 66 Jahren, da fängt das Leben an" (at 66, life is just beginning) - I take that!

I met with my good friend Lyz and we walked around the lake. The weather was mild and sunny and this was the first time in months that we walked together again, since Lyz had had knee surgery last year. We both enjoyed it so much to be able to walk together again, albeit slowly. But who cares? We had so much to catch up on anyway.

This Great Egret perched right on top of this tree and was observing his surroundings - he must have had a great view from up there.

Afterwards we went for lunch to a Mediterranean restaurant - I had half a chicken fajita wrap and sweet potato fries. It was so good.

Lyz is a quilter and she had made these beautiful placemats for me. They are now sitting on our dinner table and are such happy color spots.

In the evening, the Geek and I had some bubbly - that's how we celebrate our birthdays. This is for Bleubeard and Elizabeth's T Tuesday.

My birthday wish was to have dinner with our good friends Bim and Patti - you have met them on this blog several times. They came on Saturday evening for cheese fondue. Only a week before they had returned from their annual vacation in Hawai'i and they had brought us wonderful Hawai'ian peaberry coffee. This coffee is so good, smooth and full of flavor.

On top of that, they gave me this photo that Bim had taken on Quadra Island, BC several years ago. Both Patti and I love rock cairns. I put it in a frame and it is now sitting on my work table in my studio.

Autumn Walk

One day last week I thought I can't sit one minute longer on my butt and knit. So I hopped into my car and drove over to the lake for a "short" walk. Of course it did turn out a longer walk than I had planned. I should know this by now.

It was a beautiful day with very pleasant temperatures. Down at the lake I met one of my friends, a Green Heron. He was busy waiting for his lunch and wasn't the least bit interested in me.

When I'm at the lake on my own, I seldom walk the entire length around the lake, but turn onto the smaller trails that lead away from the water into the drier areas where more often than not I enjoy complete solitude. Just the way I like it.

I admired the different lichen on the trees...

... as well as the beautiful Lace Lichen, our state lichen.

The bark of California Buckeye is very interesting.

Some of my favorite trees in this part of the lake area is the Manzanita.

It's a slow growing little tree with fascinating red bark. 

The berries display a similar red.

Manzanitas are some of the earliest plants to bloom, often already in January, and an important food source for bees at that time. Lichens like to grow on them as well and give them an interesting appearance.

Someone had stashed away their food in the hole of a tree trunk.

Was it this little Ground Squirrel? Or someone else?

There weren't many mushrooms, at least I only saw this one.

The trees around the lake - mostly natives - don't show a great autumn display. The more I was delighted to discover this group of trees.

Almost at the parking lot I saw this beautiful California Foothill Pine cone on the ground.

So, now let's turn to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's T Tuesday. I don't have a "real" drink to show this week. However, while I was cleaning up a bit I found this emptly bottle of wine sitting in my studio. I think I kept it because I liked the label and was thinking of painting something like this. I hope it counts as a "drink" ticket.