The Small Stuff

 

The last few times I walked around the lake I paid special attention to the "small stuff" - all the little and even tiny things for which we usually don't stop or even just look. This year I started to look closer, often in wonder about how deliciously beautiful nature is. I want to show some of this "small stuff" in this post, together with the "bigger stuff".

Like these Canada Geese. They are very reliable residents of the lake.

Some kind of bumblebee (I think) on the flower of a thistle who didn't mind me at all taking pictures.

Another little insect - if anyone knows what it is, please let me know - on Yampah (Perideridia). This plant has actually kept me in confusion for the longest time and I'm still not 100% sure that it is Yampah. It would make sense, though, since it is a California native and found in abundance here. But maybe I'm completely wrong and it is something else. Sometimes trying to identify plants that all look somewhat similar leaves me in bigger confusion and only shows me how much I do NOT know. It can be very frustrating.

Same plant with a big spider web - I hope you can see it.

And more spider webs - they are abundant at the lake.

Often fluffy stuff gets caught in them.

This is a favorite photo I took in June of what I assume is Foxtail barley (Hordeum jubatum) - beautiful, but invasive.

Talking about invasive species - this is a part of the lake, even though you can't see any water. It is completely covered by Common Water Hyazinth (Pontederia crassipes), a highly invasive plant. It does look beautiful - many invasive species do.

Thankfully the Water Hyazinth was limited to two smaller areas of the lake (and I hope they won't spread any further). The water was clear, sometimes I saw otters who are always way too fast for my camera. Branches were lazily floating near the shore.

The lake has beautiful views, that I will always enjoy - they never get old.

Don't get fooled by the glorious red color and don't get near this plant and NEVER ever touch it, or you will spend the next few days in agony over a terribly itching rash. This is Western Poison Oak  (Toxicodendron diversilobum) - beautiful to watch, especially when backlit, but only enjoyed from a distance.

Lichen can be found everywhere - on the trees and on the ground. This one is Oak moss. Isn't it beautiful?

I also love lichen on rocks.

There were even some very sweet faces to be found at the lake. The Park's vegetation management is back, on four legs and very hungry. Wildfire mitigation at its best.

One last photo of the lake with a favorite tree.

Navajo-Churro Sheep Wool

While on our way to Kayenta and Monument Valley in Arizona the day before Christmas Eve, we stayed the night in the Cameron Trading Post. This is a beautiful motel under Navajo management that we return to again and again. The rooms are big, tastefully furnished and absolutely quiet. The rates are very affordable especially when you take into consideration that the motel is rather close to the Grand Canyon. If you don't want to stay with the crowds, this is the place.

However, I don't want to write about the motel, but something that you can buy in the Trading Post: yarn. Not any kind of yarn, but wool from Navajo-Churro Sheep. The sheep are raised locally, the wool is harvested and dyed locally and some of it is sold in the Trading Post. It actually hangs in long strings from the ceiling and you just have to pick your colors.

It's very affordable as well, so nothing could stop me. I was in a knitter's heaven! The colors have beautiful names as well - rusty rose (on top), fuchsia (back right), jaded dreams (front left), peacock (front right) and sea foam (back left). Jaded dreams was the only color that was difficult to photograph.

Kaefer chose fuchsia, I'm going to knit some warm socks for her. Peacock will be for a friend and the other three are for me. All of them will probably be worked into warm socks since I constantly have cold feet. Our house is not particularly warm in the winter, especially not at ground level, and that's where my feet usually are!

This is the only picture that shows the jaded dream in a realistic way - and the peacock is closer to its real color as well.

My Friday Finds for this week - I just love yarn!