Scattered Thoughts . . .

Sheila has been good at grabbing one of my cameras whenever I'm out on the sailboat. She's gotten some good shots of Lukey and me sailing as well as good shots of me sailing solo.  There was one particular day which was a very frustrating day.  It looked like a good day for sailing with the rough chop and stiff wind and I did have some really nice and exciting runs but the wind turned out to be a major disappointment after a few wild and wet runs. I didn't notice the problem with the wind until I lost all wind... I sat there in calm water all of a sudden... then, I looked more closely at the direction of the chop all around me... to my left, the chop was headed toward me... ahead of me, the chop was headed toward me... to my right, the chop was headed toward me... and here I sat in calm water. The wind all around me was blowing hard in very different directions.  When the wind blows hard it is usually a good thing for sailing but when it is coming at you from three ...

About a week ago, I was headed out the door to try to catch a decent sunset. As I approached the door, I began to hear the familiar sound of a distant helicopter... fortunately, I had a medium length telephoto lens mounted on this camera body so I just picked up the pace and continued out the door to see if I could spot him in the sky... I got lucky... I even managed to capture the blinking strobe on the tail as well as some interesting color in the sky!

I wrote about this briefly a couple of weeks ago and included a couple of photos but I just put together a more cohesive set of photos today so I'll write about it again. On our first morning at the lake house this year, Sheila and I were sitting in the living room. The file info embedded in each photo shows that it was just after 5am (although, I thought it was two hours later but Sheila disagrees) ... it was dreary... rather dark... but the lake was illuminated by reflecting the brighter sky.  We were sitting there having some morning coffee... Sheila comfortable on the couch while I sat at my desk beside the couch. My desk overlooks the lake and I noticed something floating in the water directly out in front of our house but halfway across the lake. This is a good distance and it is very unusual to see debris in the lake so it caught my eye immediately. I pointed and asked Sheila, "what is that in the water?" At first, I thought it was just a big log floating wit...

Every year, turtles are hatched on our lawn... they emerge from their buried nest, scattering broken shells and then scurry into the lake. We happily find the disturbed mound in our lawn covered with broken shells afterward and always wish we had been sitting there as these baby turtles made their way out of the nest, to the lake and then dropped into the water off our rocky shore.  Turtles can be seen all around the lake but you really need a fairly keen eye to spot them because they blend in so well with their surroundings... then they sit perfectly still until you get too close. Often, you don't even know there was a turtle on a nearby rock until you see what you thought was part of the rock quickly scurry into the lake with a plop! One day last week, I managed to capture a few good photos of turtles as we were kayaking around the lake. And, I have to say, paddling this far makes for a very long day of activity! I was actually hoping to capture a good photo of a bobcat bask...

We've been spending time at Lake Groton for about seven years now. We often hear our visiting guests claim they saw a Bald Eagle flying while they were out kayaking. I've always had my doubts though. The unfortunate fact is that there probably are no Bald Eagles in the area. Vermont actually has a Bald Eagle Recovery Plan in effect because these birds are so exceptionally rare in our neck of the woods. There are a few known nesting pairs of Bald Eagles in Vermont (mostly around Lake Champlain where the water does not ice-over in winter) but no known Bald Eagles at Lake Groton. These birds are tracked closely by numerous sources and especially if there are nests. Knowing the exact number of Bald Eagles in all of Vermont and where they are located is important for this program. In all the reports I can find, the few Bald Eagles in Vermont are still near the area where they were introduced at the beginning of this program... near a wildlife refuge in Addison. Lake Groton is id...

While my spinal injuries are settling down and I'm recovering, I've been sorting through some of the latest lake photos. I never actually got around to pulling out the tripod to shoot some high resolution panoramic images but I did notice that I had a short series of sweeping photos that I shot using the same lens and the same focal length so I tried to stitch them... I got lucky and it worked! So, here is the view from the house on a beautiful, clear morning. I love the deep blue... the crystal clear skies... the perfect reflection of the trees and mountains in the flat, placid water... the color of the mountains... and the quiet scene... of course, we also enjoy awakening to this scene every morning as we look out the windows...

I put together some of my favorite photos from the past month and thought it would be nice to share them here and write a short blurb about each image. I've shot a couple of thousand photos in the past month so there were a lot of photos from which to choose... some are better images than the few included here but... as of tonight... at this moment only... these are some of my favorites... This first one is a beautiful photo of the house... illuminated by the golden glow of the setting sun reflecting off the lake...  I love the warmth and clarity of this image...  nice little sailboat on the lawn too!  (We just need a nice little wooden runabout tied to that dock...) I have to admit that I happen to have quite a few shots of Lukey in a pose just like this... the classic shoulders half turned and yet still set back with no slouching, great eye contact, chin pointing out, nice jaw-line... however, I am drawn to his eyes in this one... he is well lit and there are fe...

Whenever we are at the lake house, I try to get up out of bed between 6am and 7am so I can get out on the lake in the kayak. At this time of day, the lake is often so calm it is like smooth glass... there is a mist rising off the lake as the sun rises... it is completely quiet until wildlife slowly wakes for another day... and, after all, it really  is the only time to get the chance to see the lake come alive as it does only each morning. This past week we had one particular morning which provided us a beautiful morning on the lake with the grandkids. This is something I typically do alone with my photography gear stowed on my kayak but this past week we had a chance to get out with the grandkids too (unfortunately, the grandchild used up the space for my photography gear). To capture this first time early morning excursion with the grandkids, I had a camera mounted on the bow of my kayak. Lukey was in my kayak while Kenzie was with Gee in her boat. Sheila's parents met us on th...

I am starting to feel a little better so I think it is time for a blog post which is a little bit on the lighter side... A couple of weeks ago, Sheila, Adam and I climbed to the summit of Owl's Head Mountain overlooking Lake Groton. Because of my health, we drove up most of the way and then climbed for about 15 minutes to get to the summit. My days of climbing thousands of vertical feet in a day are behind me. I've climbed many mountains and reached many summits over the decades but now I need some help getting to even the shortest mountains. Any activity which raises my body temperature can trigger anaphylaxis so I always try to stay near roads and hospitals. I definitely try to keep my body temperature as low as possible too. Hiking and climbing deep in the woods could be a bit too risky so in recent years we have been choosing mountaintops which have roads winding to the summit. Besides, I have already climbed my share of mountains, many requiring steep vertical climbs...

The six foot tall piles of snow outside our bedroom window have now melted enough to allow the early morning light to stream into the windows affording me a view of the kayaks and sailboat sticking out of the snow in the yard. This, naturally, reminds me that the boats and car roof racks will need some work before we can take advantage of the incredibly short boating season here in Vermont. The melting snow also reminds me it is Springtime and I need to get started on my to-do list which was put on hold due to weather conditions. I have plenty of home improvement projects which need to get done too but getting the boats ready for summer is always the first priority. I have learned that if I delay getting the boats ready, it will be too late in the short season to even try to get the boats ready and then we never get out on the boats at all.  My focus is on getting the boats ready for use for the start of summer in June... and that gets me thinking about getting back out on La...