A Day at the Lake

Let's face, we live in a pretty bleak place. You've seen pictures of our typical landscape, which is barren by all standards. There is very little elevation change, small sand dune sized hills are all that exist on that front. Plant life is scarce and hardly diverse, and there is certainly no overabundance of fauna either. But, we have found a few havens of beauty amidst our world. Come with me to a place where spiders weave, dragonflies dance, and colors bloom with muted tenacity.

I love to walk around here in our little lakeside haven. It is not a lake of Oregon proportions, rather it is a small slough created by the water held back by a very small dam. However small it is though, the birds find it a nice place to stop and rest on their long journeys north and south each year. Some call it home for the summer months, like the pheasant. I spotted this elegant feather from one, artfully dropped into this graceful plant. I love the way the colors mix together here:

The geese find a safe haven, too. They enjoy making quite a din of noise!

The dragonflies also enjoy the coolness of the water's edge.

The variety of plant life increases dramatically around the water. True to the desert, though, they are generally all small, with both few, and waxy, leaves to keep the evaporation of its precious life-giving water away to the environment to a minimum.

I'll have to pick this up again another time, Blogger is having a really rough time getting my pix uploaded for some reason.

Until then,

Your SteppeSister