And another walk

 This post courtesy of me waiting on the drain-cleaner to hopefully do its thing before I need to flush with warm water.

(Long story, but: when I went to wash dishes in my tub on Wednesday night, the bucket I used had a little crud in the bottom - probably from when I last used it to scrub - and some of that crud, despite my best efforts, went down the drain, and now the tub drain is distressingly slow. I tried the boiling-water trick first but that didn't help much, so I decided to go the chemical route. I was careful to find one that said it was safe for both metal and plastic pipes....)

I did the grading I needed to do but it kind of tanked my mood today (also just....well, just everything) and I thought maybe going out and going for a walk before dinner would help. So I went back to Lake Durant, which has the virtue of being close by and a relatively easy trail. So here are some photos.

Not much is still flowering; this is heath aster, which I learned as Aster ericoides but probably is now Symphiotrichum because of taxonomic changes (and of COURSE it's a harder and more involved thing to write on a field data sheet than aster)

This is another aster, I'm not sure which one, maybe Aster anomalous?

There were a few heavily-mown gayfeathers hanging on, but this is an abnormal time for them to flower, and it's probably because they got cut off so short during normal flowering season

And a late flowering (also probably been-mowed) milkweed, with a very sluggish (cold) bumblebee

And then just some landscape photos

It's definitely showing the effects of weeks of dryness, and also it's turned cooler here. We're not exactly gonna get fall color here (we rarely do) but at least it feels more like fall

Oh, and one more plant! This is Leavenworth Eryngo, which is in the same family as carrots, despite looking like a thistle. This is one of my favorite (native) roadside plants here

Also, walking back I remembered how when I was a very small child - like 3 and 4 - and my parents would take me out hiking with them in the Summit County Metroparks and how about 3/4 of the way back I'd get tired, and I'd ask if I could be carried, and one of them (usually my dad, he was pretty strong) would pick me up and carry me. And one of the sad things about being an adult is when you get tired (figuratively speaking) there is no one to carry you but YOU. And if you literally get tired while out hiking or something you just have to keep walking until you get back to your car. 

And yes, I'm tired. I would very much like to be carried for a while but that's not going to happen. I don't even have anyone I can lean against.