Very Cool Part II

Here is Part II of our short morning paddle down the river and back into a little gunk hole.  Our little finger of the river takes less than 30 minutes to reach the end and that is if you are paddling regularly but not at a pace. I actually do very little paddling because I am married to a man who lets me sit as the queen and take photos. There is no current, so sometimes he can paddle and drop a fishing line at the same time. We did not fish this time, but we like to head to the back part of the river because huge catfish, large stingrays, and sometimes other interesting water mysteries are about.

The above is a wood duck box that someone has installed. I hope that wood ducks take advantage in the spring!  

We soon come to the end where the highway crosses.  It is a country paved road, so little traffic except in the mornings and evenings when people are off to work.  As we turn around we see a lovely dogwood(?) that has fallen but adjusted in its beauty to growing sideways!  As we move further along I see two wood dragons arguing at the water's edge and this is followed by more fall color and then a bit of a lucky shot as I capture our belted Kingfisher on a branch and later one of our Blue Herons.

All in all, I would say it was a lovely morning.

We All Wait for the Cool, Don't We?

This canoe trip was taken up our bend in the river on October 5. The leaves had not changed to that beautiful fall by then but were just showing their potential. But the cooler early morning air was "breathtaking."  A canoe is a quiet way to glide and move.

We had not been out in months.  The summer humid air was too hot and humid and as an elder, it is hard to take.  But then, the fall weather arrived overnight and the next morning we got up early, packed a light lunch, and set out in eagerness to see nature.  

We skirted the shoreline where the neighborhood is trying to develop an oyster reef at the point in the photo below.  The water was a mirror.

A small group of deer were grazing on the ridge. One of the neighbors has set up a deer blind and it is rare to see deer now and these stay at the far end of the point.  We did startle a blue heron as we turned the corner.

The sun had barely crested the trees on the opposite side of the river, but when the rays hit the shoreline, they revealed that autumn was coming.

We were the only boaters out and about.  All was pristine and quiet.  We love that we can do that by getting up earlier in the fall mornings. The serious fisherpeople had left hours earlier and were out at the Bay or the wider mouth of the river where the bigger fish are more available.  Our more prosperous neighbors had begun to tuck their toys back in for warmer days.

I caught a very blurry photo of a red-bellied woodpecker.  This was cropped quite a bit as he was high in a far tree.  He is on the big trunk on the left side.  If you cannot see him, that is OK.

The sun got brighter as we turned facing east. And then we turned into the darker finger that was at the end where our river comes to a small highway bridge and we watched the sun touch that side.

There isa bit more before we turned home and I will make that Part II.

Autumn Makes Photographers Just a Little Crazy

Below are photos of my Black Haw or Viburnum as it turns color this fall. It is a shrub that gets about six feet high and five or six feet across and has many little baby plants. Birds eat those dark blue seeds. The first photo is the original with a little bit of denoise and lightening. The rest are fun filters. Do you have a favorite?

October Has Filled Already!

Sunsets are nearer my side of the river just at dinner now.

Who cares if dinner gets cold?

On the other side of things, the days shorten quietly and quickly. I wake up at dawn thinking it is early, but the morning has already showered and dressed and is on its way as industrious humans head to places of work. 

I start the water pot for coffee.   I am inside watching a show on the incineration of a hospital far, far away. I can barely watch it, but it is important. According to the news, Americans in the United States are looking for someone to lead with a shouting and testosterone-filled voice rather than a gentle grandfather voice. They do not care what he says, but how he says it. They do not want a female to lead because she cannot talk in a loud voice without sounding shrill and females are not willing to kill relentlessly. 

 The corner of my eye catches the moment a bright white kite sails over the river. It is one of our resident seagulls looking for breakfast and drifting above our little finger of the river. 

 Our leaves have not changed, although my sugar maple (not native and planted by me for the "fall orange crush" which, by the way, is not anything like pumpkin spice) is just beginning to blush. 

 Autumn is a time for changing how we eat and bringing out the stews and hearty soups and I search the Internet for something new. I make a ham and bean soup and take it up to my son and his wife with the toddler. 

Sliding down Mother Goose

Checking out the photos.

Sadly, I took a fall over a baby gate 12 days ago while visiting. (Yes I do seem to be falling more but in my defense there was a bar across the very last step of the stairs giving the person only 4 or 5 inches on the last step, which I missed and stepped onto the floor!).  I have been sitting more to avoid the pain of movement from the back side of my butt. I am also using fire and ice. I could not have fallen safer or better because I landed on the fattest part of my body as I grabbed the post of the stairway and swung backward! The RA says if the pain does not reduce in 4 or 5 more days, I should get an X-ray for fractures, but he feels I am in not enough pain for it to be bone damage. Good thing I lift ankle weights where I have grown some muscle butt. No flat backside for this old lady. Yes, I swear more these days, but they are just words and not actions, so get over it.

We actually took a fall leaf peeping trip last weekend in spite of my injury and I will post on that.

Now I will go and read some posts.