Summer Channel

We finally got out on the water for the first time this summer.

Water Willow blooms in banks of drooping swags with pink flowers that the bees love.

Bees were here, too, in the pickerelweed. The whole body of water that makes up the channel between Grindstone and Couderay lakes is lined with pink flowered willow weed (loosestrife) and purple flowered pickerelweed.

Then there’s the lily pads (lotus). Acres of them. The yellows are less dramatic with their rounded petals, until you examine them closely. But the white lily pad flowers are my favorite.

Elv noticed a raptor high on a dead tamarack way across the lake. So he cut the engine and reached for the binoculars. We tried to paddle closer to see what it was but the sun lowering in the sky didn’t let us see more than the shape of him. He ruffled his feathers as we got closer but stayed perched. Unfortunately the acres of lily pads kept us from moving in even closer.

Out there in the middle of a quiet lake the silence lets you hear the traffic in the distance, but mostly the nearby birds and bugs.  I feel sorry that we waited so long this summer to come away like this. We’ve been missing out on all this splendor and nature right on our own back door.

We’ve been mole-ing about, fussing from project to project, getting it all done. We’re so pleased with our progress, too. But, we almost missed watching the bees on the pickerelweed. There’s a serenity and hush found only on a little green canoe in the middle of the channel on a Saturday evening.