Clark Reservation State Park

We took advantage of spectacularly beautiful weather on Sunday - sunny, clear, mid-50s in temp - to visit Clark Reservation State Park in Jamesville.


The New York state park guide describes Clark Reservation as "a geologic wonder of the last ice age and a botanist's paradise. The park's natural features include rugged cliffs and rocky outcrops, woodland and meadow, a wetland and a glacial plunge basin lake in which the surface waters and bottom waters do not mix."

We describe it as wow. It is quite a drop from the parking area down to the lake, which is unbelievably clear and quite cold. There were a few moments on the cliff trail where my stomach sunk and my feet temporarily refused to move! We kept a close hold on Aidan and a careful watch on our feet.


Aidan did a great job of keeping up and learning to safely hike over rocky ground.


From the lake's edge, we could see ducks, geese and hawks, and could hear other critters scampering around.


Part of the Table Rock trail was like nothing we have ever seen: flat rocks split into what almost look like deliberate pieces. The glaciers and runoff from the glaciers carved and formed the rocks over a gazillion years. Well, something like that.


We ate our picnic lunch, explored a little more of the park and then made the short drive home. Another fun day outdoors in CNY!

Hat trick

Just in time for warmer weather, I finished a hat for Aidan. I wanted to make him a fun yet functional hat, and chose a simple ribbed pattern called the Rib-A-Roni. My first thought was to use a self-striping yarn, so I bought two skeins of Plymouth Yarn Boku, but that yarn and I did not get along well at all. I wasn’t wild about the colors and, more importantly, it irritated my hands something awful - the skin on my fingers got red and puffy, and it looked in some places like I had burn blisters.

I then bought Cascade Yarns Dolce yarn in three bright colors: Pumpkin, Boysenberry and Pea Soup. I used Pumpkin as the main color, then added a stripe of Pea Soup flanked on either side by Boysenberry:


I like the three colors together, as does Aidan:


There are two more hats in my knitting queue, but after knitting three hats in the last two months or so, I need a break.