through the eyes of a 15 year old

Sightings: beaver, geese, mallard ducks, great blue heron, other birds (?)
Sunrise: 5:46 am
Temp: 58 F
Moon: waning gibbous, 3/4, setting in the west

Getting two teenagers out of bed @ 5:00 am on a Saturday morning wasn't easy, but we did it! Boats in the water around 5:30. Kris, me, Ryan, Jacob. Two moms and our two babies (sorry Ryan & Jacob - you will always be our babies!).

Getting over the first beaver dam is getting trickier these days as the water gets lower and the beaver build higher. As we make multiple attempts to navigate over the dam, numerous beaver are lazily cruising around on the far side of the dam, taking note of us, laughing at us I'm sure. Over we go, the beaver go under, on we continue. We've been out here enough to know that some of the beaver will quickly resurface behind us. I can visualize them looping and cartwheeling below me. I would love to join them.

Kris & I lag behind Jacob & Ryan as they kayak slowly up river, our Nikons at ready. We relinquish the reward of being the first in line to stir up the wildlife of dawn. Jacob is capturing the story with the Canon Powershot, Ryan his photographic consultant. see the short video ...

Out to Little Pond. One fisherman, one swan, one walker on the boardwalk. We scatter into three different directions - Ryan and Kris head up a small side stream, Jacob gets moored on a sandbar and takes advantage of the moment to capture what passes by him. I wander across the pond, chase the swan for a bit (at a distance - he's not to be messed with), and then lose myself among the water lilies.

The sun has just broken over the trees and the light is cutting into the water in such a way that you can see below the water surface. The lilies exist not just on the surface, but are a whole other piece of art below the surface too. I am privy to the World Below the Lilies. The colors are spectacular.




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Here is what Jacob captured...

Second sunrise

Sightings: beaver (lots of), swan, mallard ducks, geese
Sunrise: 6:02 am
Temp: 49 F
Moon: crescent, already set by sunrise

On the water...

kris - sorry to leave you in the dust. had to get to work. any exciting sightings after i left? will post pics tonight. nice morning! ....

here is my picture of the day - i like the water ring in lower left corner. the picture of the little beaver fellow that swam up to my kayak was all blurry - i got too excited!

you, me, one big lake, sunrise (and glenn who kindly took this picture - thanks glenn!).

Sister weekend

Official "Tryout for Sister Weekend" - something we have been planning to do for a long time. My sister Ellen (sister 3 of 4) came out to Litchfield on the tail of a surprise weekend, cooked up by her husband Michael. It didn't matter that it is a 7 hour drive from western NY to get here. To spend one short evening and morning before turning around to head back home. Embrace the moment, enjoy life to its fullest. No one knows what tomorrow will bring so live today like it is your last! Right Mike?
Sushi, dancing, kayaking, daffodils, great conversations. Nice!
Late Sunday morning we stopped by Kris's to borrow her two kayaks, picked up some panini from On Common Ground (plus a bottle of wine from home), and headed up to White Memorial. Launched the boats from Bissell Road bridge and headed west towards Bantam Lake. Ellen, Michael, Julek and me. I haven't kayaked during the day too much so it was interesting to see the difference in lighting and wildlife activity. Most of the wildlife you see at sunrise is sleeping or laying low now so very little action today. The water lilies are just starting to break the water surface.


We kayaked up river to Town Beach, landed, ate lunch, then returned back up the river to Bissell bridge. Our highlight of the day was a small turtle sunning himself on a log.
We did run across a pair of swans near Town Beach. I was curious if it was the same pair we always see at Little Pond.