I like bugs....I do!  But not when they sneak up on me!  Last week , when I went grocery shopping, one of them did....

I took the cart full of groceries out to the car, stopped and opened the back door of the RAV, and when I turned around, someone had hitched a ride.  A BIG someone!  (That's the strap of my purse that he's sitting on....)  A bit startling......

I got a new skein of yarn from A Darn Good Yarn - recycled silk yarn hand-dyed with herbs.  I have a scarf/cowl started with it - I'll post pictures of the finished scarf....when I finish it!  I love the color of this one.

So here's one of Meredith's photos that I love - our true view from the campsite at Butt Lake......

Okay - so I've been slacking on the posts - I've been busy!!!  (Not a good excuse, but that's all I've got!)  Last weekend, I went up to Butt Lake by Almanor with Meredith and Chris.  Ralph brought Alli up for the morning on Saturday too.  Meredith and Chris just got kayaks a month or so ago, and Meredith was excited to try out kayaking on Butt Lake.  It is a great lake for kayaking!

This was the lake in the morning:

And this is the lake in the afternoon - love the seagulls on the tree stumps!

And one of them on the shoreline.

Meredith in her kayak:

We found a blue heron and followed it around the lake for  awhile.

Some of the tree stumps in the lake - it's a PG&E lake, so it's man-made - lots of tree stumps.

The lake in the evening - we sat on the beach in our campchairs and watched the meteor showers.

The views from our campsite - though Meredith has a better one I'll have to steal off Facebook.....

Some of the tree stumps are pretty tall......

And some were interesting shapes

We were slaloming in some of them....

We found a nice secluded beach and explored a bit.

A cormorant on the stumps

And Chris out on his kayak, leading the way......

We had our annual family camp out last week - sans most of the family!  Jeff and two of his boys went up camping (Kody was his no-show, since he happens to still be on his honeymoon....) Friday/Saturday/Sunday.  Kirby and I drove up Saturday to visit. That's a nice way to camp!!!  We had a nice drive/chat, lunch at camp, a couple of walks around the lakes, a chat with the boys and Jeff, and then a nice drive/chat home.  It was a great break in my routine - just what I needed!  

This was Kirby's first trip up to Plaskett Meadows, and she was expecting the lakes to be a bit bigger, I think.  I'm sure part of it is from all the stories she's been told from the boys' annual camping trips over the years. When you're 6 or 8, the lakes ARE much bigger!  (Jeff keeps telling us we can't call them lakes - they are too small!)

I got a great photo of the egrets at Elk Creek.  I always stop there on the way up to camp (and sometimes on the way back too....) The rocks are just so cool there!

Some shots of Upper Lake

One of Lower Lake - 

I had to be creative in my photos of Lower Lake - we had a large group of kids follow us down to the lake with inner-tubes and floats, and I had to be careful not to get them in the photos.  They had come up to go swimming in Upper Lake, but there were quite a few people fishing, and they didn't want to disturb the fish, so went to the Lower Lake.  They were very concerned that we were trying to fish too, since Kirby, Jake and I were just hanging out, talking, across the lake from them.  We assured them they were in no danger of interrupting our fishing - they were having a blast in the water!  I got this shot just before they hit the water - the reflections are cool, and once they were in, the water wasn't nice and still anymore.....

And some of the flora and fauna