Margene and I had another kayaking adventure....we set out from Oak Bottom Marina at Whiskeytown Lake.  I've never been there, and it's been years since she has.  It is a beautiful spot - but I think they all are beautiful on Whiskeytown.

Margene was making friends with the geese...

We saw a HUGE eagle nest, complete with an eagle.  We didn't get close to it, so this was taken from quite a distance away.  I couldn't remember if they would still be nesting at this time or not.

We find a nice little cove that we floated in and had some crackers and cheese while just absorbing the solitude of the lake.   Ahhhh.......

Margene remembered from when she was at the lake years ago that there was a place you could kayak through and see part of the road that had been submerged when they filled the lake.  At that time, you could still see the paint lines on the road.  The problem - it was MANY years ago, and she didn't remember where it was.  We did manage to stumble across it though - lucky us!  It has a very narrow entrance.....and you can still see the paint lines!

Headed back to the marina...

Dawn came up for a short visit last week - unfortunately for her - it turned into a longer visit.  While she was here, her apartment had the power shut down to it.  Not a good thing for Fresno in the summer.  She decided to hang with us a few extra days.....and I don't blame her!  While she was here, I had a couple of days of vacation scheduled, so we took a road trip through Lassen Park.  They opened the road through just recently.  The lakes at the top (Helen and Emerald) are still covered in ice, and most of the parking lots are not cleared of snow - awesome!

My main objective was a walk around Manzanita Lake.  This is the best time.....the babies are out!  

If you wonder why the babies were all hanging out at the edge of the lake - check out all the minnows here....

When Dawn and I got out of the car at the lake, we saw two young boys go running up to their (assumed) dad.  "Guess what!  There's an eagle over there, there's an eagle over there!  We were next. They came running up to us to tell us there was an eagle at the lake.  One of the boys followed us for a bit on our walk telling us all about it.    We did eventually run across the eagle.  He spent part of the time flying overhead with his signature screech,  Once again...Awesome!

My favorite shot of the day....

 
The stellar jays were out as well.  They are so handsome!  (but noisy!)

This guy decided to join us for lunch, hoping for a few handouts, I think.

I did it again - got busy, and didn't post.  The good news - I have tons of pictures of what I have been busy with!  I'm going to post separately for my kayak and road trip - these are just the 'normal' busy things......

While I was camping at Hat Creek, I ignored my garden.  I came home to HUGE zucchinis.  Luckily, they weren't too seedy - at least the one I ate wasn't.  One went to Margene, and the other was spiralated for dinner.  

Here's my harvest from the other day - more zucchini (normal size this time), a pepper, an eggplant, some tomatoes and a round zucchini.  The garden is doing well - last night was a stir fry with my beans, zucchini and tomatoes, along with other veggies from my box from Churn Creek Organic Farms.

I recently taught Margene how to crochet net scrubbies, and she wanted to learn to make the dishcloths, so she started shopping (on-line) for yarn.  She got a little excited and ordered ME a bunch of cotton yarn and netting.  I got this package shipped directly to my house:

Book club this month was Margene's pick, and she was planning on having it her garage - until the temperature spiked.  She had it at my house (with air conditioning!) instead.  The book was The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom (good book!) so this month, instead of bookmarks, I made "kitchen things' - washcloths and scrubbies - and used some of the yarn/netting from Margene.  Here are some of the combinations I came up with.  While the ladies were here, they rearranged to their satisfaction the combinations of dishcloth and scrubbies - evidently my choices weren't the best......

One of my fortune cookies - I told AJ it should have been his!

From a couple of our walks recently.....

 

Just to show I've been busy!!!

So I haven't posted in two weeks, now.  Sorry - I was busy!!!!  Anymore, my computer time is only in the early mornings - when Alli gets up before 5:00, and she's been sleeping in until 5:15 or so, which is wonderful, but....I don't get up in time to spend much time on the computer.  So...I'm behind!

I spent last weekend with company visiting.  Dawn came up and spent the weekend - which was a lot of fun, but...she's an early bird like me, so we spent the morning talking instead of me updating the blog.  (I'd take the morning chat any day!!)

I did take some time while Dawn was here to help Margene clear out her garden area and get her garden in.  I tackled the blackberry vines that had grown up in her grapes and pretty much any area they could....nasty things!  Margene was able to pick a couple of cups of berries off the vines that are growing where they are supposed to be growing - I think they are actually loganberries, rather than blackberries back there.  She wouldn't let me get close with my shears......

We managed to get her back area under control, and she got her garden in, finally.  She was doing things like messing with the irrigation system and planting - I was providing the grunt work - pulling, chopping, etc.

Alli got her hair cut - it was getting past her shoulders and in her eyes.  This is such a cute cut!

Margene and I took the RV to Hat Creek on Friday.  Margene is convinced she can turn me into a fisherwoman.  I'm not convinced, but the camping was fun!

Margene caught her limit Friday afternoon after we got in and got camp set up.  I had brought some steaks as a back up plan, so we had steak, fresh-caught trout, baked potatoes, and corn on the cob - all roasted either over the camp fire or on the brand new little baby Weber I got for the RV.  Everything but the steaks were perfect, and they were just a bit over-done (my fault - I thought they were done, but didn't take them off right then, and got side-tracked....)

Here's Margene's fishing spot.  Just under the bridge at Cave Campground.  Hat Creek is really full - her fishing spot from last year is underwater.  (It was pretty much in the center of the picture.)

Here's may favorite rock - and this year it still has water running all around it.  Last year, it was bone-dry there.

My view from my fishing spot - I managed to snag my line relatively quickly, and broke off the leader, so....I went back to camp and read.

This was the view from our campsite (at least one direction.  One direction had two tree stumps that were out of the ground - remnants of the big wind storm a year ago, I think.

Here's one of our camp visitors.  The caution tape is around the above-mentioned tree stumps, not for the chipmunk.

If you look closely into the water, you can see the trout......the water was so clear that I could see them just swimming around and ignoring my bait.

While Margene was fishing (and catching!) I went for a short hike along the creek - lots of wildflowers were blooming.