I’ve been looking at my collection of spines a lot lately. They are beautiful, and there are so MANY different varieties in the world (even just in my [comparatively] small collection). Here are some for you to enjoy in (sort of) the style of Dr. Seuss. Not nearly as cool, but with better pictures.
Red spines, yellow spines.
Brown spines, multi-colored spines.
Black spines, white spines.
Wide spines, narrow spines.
Short spines, long spines (some over 8 inches long).
Hooked spines, straight spines.
Spines in hair, spines in the ground.
…and last but not least, spines that don’t belong to a cactus.
What kind of spines do you have, and which are your favorites?
We now own a Suzuki Samurai. Actually, correction: RICH now owns a Suzuki Samurai. He’s been working on it to make it FIERCE (rather than ‘cute’) for nearly a month now. Apparently it’s working.
We went to the mountains (the La Sal mountains, just south of Moab) for the day on September 4. It was a nice trip, and we saw lots of great stuff. It’s nice to go up there during the summer – it’s actually about 25° cooler.
Dark Canyon Lake was beautiful, though there is a HUGE new house right on the shore. Mindy enjoyed herself, and there were some pretty mountain gentians there.
Blue Lake was nice, too, but the road down TO the lake was ugly. I made a panorama of Blue Lake, too.
We saw lots of mushrooms while we were up there, but most of them were the pretty red-and-white speckled variety with white gills and SCARY poison. They tell me, though, that maybe there will be a successful mushroom-hunting trip with my dad soon.
Oh – Guess there should be a photo of the Samurai, too. Rich took this one.
We took another trip into the mountains today (September 19). This time, we went to Miner’s Basin (which is at about 9800 feet). There is a little lake there, and lots of beauty. The leaves of the scrub oak and the Aspens are starting to change color for the fall. Here’s the lake:
…and IN the lake, there were fish. Brown trout, I think. There were LOTS of them. I got a few photos of them, swimming about.
I got to add some new birds to my list. On the way up to Miner’s Basin, I saw a Dusky Grouse on the side of the road. Rich stopped the Samurai so I could take a very poor photo of her. Also, near the lake there was a Clark’s Nutcracker. He was much more obliging, and held still for MANY photos. He was a ham.
When we first arrived at the lake, there was a LOT of noise coming out of some nearby trees, so I went to inspect – and found this tiny squirrel. He was a medium brown color with a dark gray tail, and he was hanging off a tree branch. SOOOO cute! There were a bunch of little mountain chipmunks running around, too, and Mindy chased some. They are cute, too.
I took a picture of a mountain dandelion (Agoseris aurantiaca), and some other wildlife (that’s my friend Hillary, who happened to be up there with 2 other friends – it’s a small world, eh?), and Mindy.
This has become a long post. I must go to bed. Thanks for stopping by!