Scattered Thoughts . . .

The sun rises behind the lake house... behind the mountains... behind the tall trees... toward the southern sky so to the left behind the house. Although the sun instantly burns off the fog and illuminates the opposite shore of the lake the moment it rises above the mountains, we are left in the shadows of the mountains and trees for another hour or so. By the time the sun gets up high enough to burn off the morning fog and begin to warm up our side of the lake, it is sometime between 8:00 and 9:00 am.  Here is this first light beginning to light up all the shadows on our side of the lake... In my previous blog entry, I shared a photo of Kenzie sitting in a chaise lounge with her baby doll... she was sitting in one of these chairs (below), watching me on the dock as I was shooting photos of loons. She was patiently waiting for me to begin making breakfast. I suspect Lukey was still sleeping away in bed since Kenzie usually gets up when I get up and Lukey is typically the last on

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 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

Yesterday, for the most part, was a rainy day for catching up on sleep and for resting our sore, tired bodies. I think both of us slept away most of the day. We just napped in front of a fire all day. It was a much needed break from all of the activity lately. This morning the overcast skies are gone and the sun is shining. The lake is calm so we will head out on the kayaks this morning for a longer trip than we have done all year.   I have some rigging to replace on the sailboat before I can go out sailing again. I replaced some rigging before we arrived at the lake but some of the stuff that I did not replace is now only holding on by one single strand! It needs to be replaced now, for sure, so I'll attempt that sometime today too. I'm hoping the wind will pick up again at some point so I can do some more sailing but that rigging needs to be fixed first. In the meantime, here are a couple of photos from this morning...

We got up at 5am this morning... my spine has been killing me... pain through the left side of my pelvis radiating to my hip (I'm even feeling it through my groin... fun times) ... and enough pain that it is keeping me up most of the night so we got up at 5am this morning and, fortunately, we were treated to quite a show! First, we saw blue sky! That is a bit unusual at the lake early in the morning since the lake is often shrouded in fog at this time of day. This morning was beautiful! (It is now overcast, windy and we are experiencing a passing shower.) Next, as I was sitting here at my desk overlooking the lake... with Sheila sitting on the couch beside me... I noticed something floating in the middle of the lake. It looked like a log... then it started changing direction slightly and we were debating whether it was a beaver or something along those lines... we both agreed it was too large to be a beaver...  I grabbed one of the cameras off my desk... the one with the l