Reflections on hiking at Three Lakes Park

Did you miss me?  I don't know what happened to yesterday's TBT post.  I had one scheduled, but it disappeared.  I guess that will teach me to schedule posts in advance instead of blogging live.  Oops.

I don't have much knitting to show you.  I decided to go hiking instead of spending my time off this week knitting.  I've been wanting to get into hiking.  Damn Pinterest!  While looking for examples of hats, I came across pictures of hikers and it looked like fun.  And something I could do.  Hiking is just walking, right?

Of course, my daughter is laughing at me for wanting to become a hiker.  She knows I'm just in it for the shoes.  (And a cool backpack.  She doesn't know me as well as she thinks she does.  There's just something I love about an awesome looking, well worn backpack.)  Sarah also laughs at the idea of me hiking because she knows how I feel about going for a walk around the block.  It's just way too much effort.

But the idea of hiking through nature.... wearing cool, well worn and well fitting boots and toting that special backpack....  Of course my backpack only contains water & the camera.  Even in fantasy land, I don't think I'm ready for overnight hiking.

Anyway... Sarah & I packed up our cameras & water bottles (minus the cool boots & backpack.  I need to go shopping.) and 'hiked' around Three Lakes Park.

We saw lots of pretty reflections on the water.

Lots of creepy vines.  And poison  ivy.  And frequently, the creepy vines were surrounded by poison ivy so I'm wondering if the creepy vines are in fact poison ivy vines.  Probably.  What else would create such a deadly looking vine?  Ick.  Makes me itch just to think about it.

We saw lots of geese and one followed us for the longest time.  I imagine they think humans mean food.

And we saw a  heron.

 And Mr. & Mrs. Mallard feeding in a leaf & pollen strewn swampy area.

And some pretty flowers.

And this bridge.  I was fascinated by the lines of the bridge.

And thousands of turtles.  Well, maybe not thousands, but many, many turtles.  Turtles of all shapes and sizes and colors.

And lots of big fish that creeped Sarah out.  She doesn't like the way fish "just hang there in the water with their eyes bugging out, looking at you."  And as you can tell from that photo, it's spring in Virginia.  Lots and lots of pollen floating on the water.

After our hike, I came home and played with yarn and food coloring.  I'm proud to say that I did not dye my hands a weird color this time.

I turned boring white yarn into

burn your retinas, day-glow orange yarn.

Hmmm...  I just noticed - the new orange yarn is almost the same color as the turtle.  How cool is that?