Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Tuesday Afternoon - Maybe we Should leave this Field

We made a video with all the gang in it but me. I was the director, camera woman, sound guy and best girl. Might get an Oscar.
After Jo left we each did our own little different thing. Had a very nice lunch of slices of garden fresh tomatoes and bolocheti cheese with basil, olive oil and lemon. Also little cheese or roast beef open face sandwiches with homemade mayo and dijon mustard. After lunch everyone went in different directions again.
Nancy took Aunt Mary for a massage and then She and Uncle Ron went into town to pick up some gelato. Jerry drove me up to the kettle lakes on top of mount Krouger. It was not a long drive. We went up this small and sometimes scary road. It started out paved with small hobby farms on each side, some of which were for sale. It then became much smaller and gravel.
Parts of the trip were a little hair raising for me as I do not care for precipices, but luckily they did not last that long. ( the length of time we were driving along the precipice that is) We did have to shoo some cattle off the road at one point, but we did it from the inside of the VW van.
It is very pretty up there.
We did not see another vehicle, for which I personally was rather happy as the road is quite narrow.
we passed some cattle with long horns, two smaller very picturesque lakes, some more cattle with no horns and went over 3 different cattle guards in the road. I got the impression it was cattle country.
We came to the lake and Jerry commented that it was way down from the last he had seen it but that he usually only came up in the spring and fall. This was the first time he had been there in August. A kettle lake gets all its water from snow melt and rain.
We heard the killdeer before we saw it. It played its wounded tricks on us trying to lure us away from its babies that we spotted in the tall foxtails along the shore. Quite a good show really.
It started to rain a little but I had on my big hat so was not too worried. It is like an umbrella really. There was a plant growing in the lake along the shore and Jerry thought it might be milfoil. Will have to check it out. There was a small group of cattle down at the far end of the lake resting.
Butterflies everywhere. A beautiful bowl of a valley with the lake in the center. A nice variety of trees too.
Some very old poplar and pine, sage and grasses and flowers. there was a house at the entry end of the lake but it didn't look like anyone was home. It must have already been built before the area became a provincial park.
Two cattle came running down the hill towards the lake about 200 yards away so I tried to get them on film. At first we thought they were going for the water but one of them seemed more interested in the other cattle and so we thought maybe it was a bull and maybe we should leave the field.
On our leisurely walk back to the van, with occasional glances over our shoulder to check out the location of the cows/bull?, I spotted some outhouses.
A pair of them and went to check them out, but not too closely. they each had a quarter moon cut into them. One with the moon facing right and the other facing left. So the question is, which would be the guys and which the girls?
Let me know if you find out.
Lots of wild flowers, real native wildflowers not the invasives.
We headed back.
Jerry said we had time to go and see something I had probably never seen before. The spotted lakes. I was game.
We stopped at the middle lake and I got some nice shots of a duck, a wax wing and some damsel flies.
This lake was very different from the top lake. It was more protected with hills and trees coming right to the lake and the water reflected the green of the trees. We past the smallest lake and met our first vehicle, a big red truck but Jerry was calm and said that there was lots of room.
I was not totally disbelieving, just a little skeptical. Luckily I kept my thoughts on the matter to myself as it turned out that Jerry was correct. We continued on and met with the small herd of cattle, two moms and four babies. Well, there were four babies and 2 bigger cows so I was assuming they were the moms.
The narrow gravel road continued and suddenly a woman driving too fast for my liking, came around the corner.
With quick reactions Jerry pulled as far over to the right as was humanely possible, making me a lot more nervous as I am sure we had only two inches of road left before we tumbled over the edge.
The other driver did in fact slow down enough to pass us safely and we continued on, Jerry unruffled, me ruffled. More cows, the crossing guards and onto the pavement. We went up the highway for 5 minutes and pulled onto one of the smallest pullouts I think I have ever seen. Room for one vehicle only.
The sign with the gate locking us out and keeping us from walking down to see the spotted lakes said that in the future there would be a larger pullout ( that would not be difficult ) with a parking lot, wheelchair access and a boardwalk to tour the lake below. I look forward to that very much.
The lake was the coolest thing I have seen in a long time. It seems there are minerals in the water and when the lake dries up, the minerals form large round dots on the surface which reflect the sky or terrain depending on your angle of view. They were so cool. A spiritual place for the native tribe and a natural wonder. (I don't believe the spot with the beer? can in the middle was one of the spiritual spots unless it was an offering)
We headed back to the house where Jerry began the preparations for supper, (a tunisian themed pasta dish which was very nummy) Nancy, Mary and I went into the loom room to check out the looms and threads (Nancy is going to make me a strap for my camera) and Uncle Ron got caught up with the news. I really think he was taking a well deserved nap.
Supper was great followed by sitting on the balcony in the near perfect temperature. We have been very lucky in that it has not been so hot as it usually is at this time of year.

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