Scattered Thoughts . . .

I have a little bit of time to kill before heading to another medical appointment this morning so I thought I would add a few more photos to my blog.  I'm heading to a new specialist this morning... a type of appointment which is never really 'fun' and with a new doctor you never know what to expect. There is a lot of unnecessary crap hanging over my head right now including the threat of losing my Social Security Disability Insurance benefits. Actually, this really pisses me off and adding in this new specialist isn't helping any.  So, I have a bit of time to kill this morning and thought I would share a few photos from last week... This first photo is of a slightly uncooperative loon. Although he was paddling away from me, he kept looking back to see if I was still there photographing him...  This was an early morning photo. The contrast was low because I had to bump up the exposure quite a bit to capture some detail in this mostly black loon. Now the loon

We hadn't seen the resident Bald Eagle pair in a couple of days so we were wondering where they were hiding. We also hadn't seen any other significant wildlife such as bobcats and bears so I was feeling I needed to wander out to find something worth photographing. Sheila and I headed out on our kayaks yesterday morning. I had three cameras in my kayak... a Sony action video camera, a Sony full-frame camera with a 70-200mm lens, and a Sony crop camera with a 400mm F5.6L lens which gives me an equivalent of 600mm. I also brought along a wide angle lens for any landscape photos that may present itself. With these cameras, I was confident I could capture photos of loons, Bald Eagles, bears, bobcats, turtles or whatever wildlife appeared.  About a mile from our lake house, I pulled to the shore to check a nice sandy beach on State land for any tracks... I saw none. We continued on down toward the dam at the end of the lake.  As we approached the end of the lake, I noticed a r

For a long while, we had a school of friendly Perch swimming around our beach and dock. There were twelve of them to be exact! It was really nice to see them because that is a sign of a healthy lake. Plus, it is nice seeing all sorts of wildlife no matter which direction you turn your head! These very friendly Perch were always hanging around our beach and dock, that is, until the kids insisted upon fishing and our little Perch friends immediately abandoned our beach and dock area for safer waters after Lukey caught one of the twelve. They left, obviously annoyed with us and terrified, and they haven't been back. "Post Edit - June 22, 2017:  For days, I've been thinking about this problem of this school of Perch being run off due to fishing. There is now a new rule in place for the lake house...  " Absolutely no fishing from the property. If you want to fish, get in a boat and fish near the State land or out in deeper water away from the house."  The fi

People seem to get excited to hear that the Bald Eagle is making a comeback in the northeast after being almost extinct. Personally, I find these birds to be an annoyance equivalent to a seagull and seagulls are something I always refer to as a rat with wings. The Bald Eagle is an aggressive predator preying upon other birds, wildlife and disrupting the life cycle of other animals already on the endangered list so I really do not look upon this nasty bird with affection at all. One of the things we always loved about Lake Groton is the amount of active loons. There is even a healthy dose of transient loons who come and go. I've learned a lot about loons and their quirkiness by carefully observing them over the years including all the difficulties this endangered bird has with effective reproduction. Having a monstrous predator hovering over their heads, harassing them, agitating them and trying to eat them is of no help to building the loon population. I'd rather see the loon

Today was an action packed day at the lake house! The grandchildren arrived today with their great-grandparents in tow.  They were supposed to be here on Monday but a last minute appointment near home kept them from visiting us until today.  After Monday's appointment, they had school on Tuesday and they have their last day of school tomorrow so that left today open for a quick day trip and they'll be back on Friday to stay for close to a week. After canceling their visit to us on Monday they were itching to get here today! The weather was rather chilly and windy this morning so we decided it was a perfect day for hiking to the summit of Owl's Head Mountain overlooking our lake. It was sunny and clear but a bit too chilly for swimming on the beach. This worked out well because when we arrived back at the house after hiking it was definitely warm enough for swimming and a little kayaking. The hike was great! The views were spectacular and, although we (the adults)

Up until this afternoon, we've had some brutally hot and humid weather with temperatures nearing triple digits and the same for the humidity. Since my health does not do well in warm/hot environments, it is fortunate that the weather changed this afternoon. Now we are experiencing rather cool weather with some scattered showers.  The skies appear to be clearing up again and the warmth is returning but it is significantly cooler than we've experienced thus far. I think we are supposed to have some clear skies through the night tonight so, if the biting flying insects are a bit more mellow tonight, perhaps I can capture some photos of the starry night sky. This morning we arose at 5:30am and were out on the kayaks by around 6:15am. The lake was placid and the temperature was comfortable for a change.   By mid-morning, the wind had whipped up to be perfect for sailing. Adam spent a little time on the sailboat skimming through the white caps. I haven't found the energy to

It has been brutally hot today (I'm still sweating and it is now dark outside) and there were swarms of tiny biting flies whenever the wind died down but we had a really nice day... The view from behind the house as the setting sun reflects off the boats in the yard... I stepped out onto the deck to shoot this shot...  I wasn't out there longer than three minutes before I was completely covered in biting flies...  that wasn't too pleasant!

All packed up and ready to go... We made the big summer move to the lake house yesterday. We managed to tie five kayaks on the roof of Sheila's car and the sailboat on the top of my car.  Both cars were loaded to capacity inside. Actually, Sheila's car bottomed out on the private road to the lake house.   Wow...  I was not ready for this move and it took a lot out of me! My spine is screaming, my feet are unhappy and my legs are uncooperative. I'm bent over like I'm 90 years old and I'm moving very slowly. The house, however, is now ready for guests and some fun times! Oh...  we planned to be out of the house and on the road to the lake house earlier than usual... one last visit to the bathroom... then dumped some Rid-X into the toilet to let some bacteria do its thing to the septic tank...  flush our new toilet... the Rid-X clumped up into a solid clump and clogged the toilet.   Ugggg....   On the road to the lake house... That's what I get

This is little Nemo... one of our resident fish. A couple of weekends ago, we brought the grandkids to Dick's Sporting Goods to try on and purchase some new life vests for them to wear at the lake. They've outgrown their old life vests so it was time for a larger size.  While we were trying on life vests, a nearby display caught Lukey's eye... it was an end cap display of large inflatables for the water. Some extremely large inflatable called a "Floating Island" caught his eye and our eyes... This "Floating Island" is a huge inflatable with two areas for hanging out... a covered area for four or six people to sit facing each other with their feet in the water... and a sunning area for two or three people to stretch out comfortably. There is about a two foot by three foot hole in the middle of the covered seating area where you let your feet dangle in the water while talking with each other and drinking a few cold refreshments.   Gee and I show

As I mentioned in a previous blog entry this past week or two, the lake house has been on our minds because now is the time of year for planning our summer and, since the lake house is on my mind, I've been sorting through old photos of our times at the lake house. A few photos have caught my eye while sifting through these old photos.  Okay... really... quite a few photos have caught my eye and I'm left wondering why I didn't do anything with them. In this case, two photos of Kenzie from last summer caught my eye that I wanted to share here. In this first one, Kenzie is fishing on our dock. I found her expression amusing... it appears as though she is saying, "What's on my line? WHAT's on my line???" Either that or the dock is too hot for her feet and she is wincing in pain! Either way, it is an amusing expression making for an interesting photo... I've shared this next one before but I never told the story behind it so it was worth sharin

I was talking with one of our lake house guests this morning about plans for this summer at the lake and that got me thinking about the last time they visited us. Naturally, I went back to a few of the folders on my hard drive that hold photos from that particular week.  One image caught my eye... when I looked at the date and time stamp embedded in the photo, I thought it was a bit amusing... I shot this photo at 6:20 am on 6/20! The morning fog was still well settled all across the lake but the sun had just broken through the fog illuminating some of the trees and a house directly across the lake from our house. I liked the way the sun lit up the fog and added depth, color and light to the trees on the opposite shore. Our side of the lake was still very much in the shade, hidden within the shadows and beneath the mountains behind the house. This 'first sun' of the day always seems to be the most dramatic... perhaps even more so than our daily sunsets.  Now that I think

I have so many photos from our years at the lake house that I don't have a clue what to do with them all! Whenever I go back to look through photos from previous years, I always find a few to share that haven't been shared before.  Lately, we've been talking about schedules at the lake house for this summer... who might want to visit,  who gets which timeframe,  when to schedule trips for resupplying food and drinks, etc. Needless to say, the lake house has been on our minds. It is this time of year when we are both ready for some time at the lake but it is also the time of year when I need to start getting ready for our summer.  I must ensure that all our lake house stuff is ready to go... chairs, canopies, the kayaks, the sailboat, radios, lights, life preservers, etc. Once the snow clears out, I need to get hopping on this stuff.  Of course, most years the snow doesn't clear out until late April or early May...  sometimes not until early June... this year, ho

I've been stuck indoors this week due to some health issues so I've been sifting through photos and editing some of them. Today I'm having difficulty lifting my left arm in addition to all the nauseating symptoms of the past week keeping me close to our bathroom. Most of what I've done today with these photos required the use of a mouse with my right hand though so I happen to have a couple of photos to share. Both of these photos were shot at the lake and both photos were captured on beautiful sunny and warm days. The first photo I inserted below is of Kenzie kayaking with Nan. I had the sun at my back in this shot so the clarity is really nice and the background drops off smoothly and quickly. I like how they stand out against the shore in the background as well the clarity and tonal qualities... of course, this photo also reminds me of a typical nice day out on the lake so that is nice too! The second photo was shot by Sheila. She grabbed my camera while I was

I'm experiencing some poor health (I ran out of one of my medications so the next week or so will be quite miserable until this medication finally arrives) so I'm just sitting around at my computer sifting through some photos.  I came across a few photos of Gee that I shot this summer... I have many photos of Sheila but these four stood out this morning.... I recently shared a sunset photo very similar to this one, below, but I captured Sheila at the edge of the frame in this one... Sheila is pretty easy to photograph on any day but she is exceptionally easy to photograph when she is "Gee"... of course, Lukey and Kenzie make it easy too!