The Secret Cave

Returning to this grotto every summer reminds me of how things can be both the same and different. Although it is always in the same place along Whallenburg Bay’s shore, it is different because of the water level and vegetation. It’s appearance, smells and sounds are different too. Listen.

Parch Pond

 

Sharing a special place with good friends. Nothing like it. A perfect day of blue sky, 70 degrees and crystal green tea water. Heaven.

 

St. Regis Canoe Area – Seven Carries

 

 

 Paddling on wilderness ponds strung like a necklace through dense pines and deciduous forests. Loons and their babies, a bald eagle, an osprey. And us, alone, finally together and apart, paddling and being. Floating.

 

Caribbean Beach on Lake Champlain

An adventure Fourth of July. Paddling out from Westport to meet friends coming from Whallensburg Bay. On the way we discovered a sandy beach uncovered this year because of low water on the lake. Lucky us. Swimming in aquamarine water with soft white sand underfoot for a hundred yards in every direction. Cool water, warm rocks to lay upon afterward. Are we in St. John’s?

 

Road Trip

Brooksville, Maine

Three friends set out driving across Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine to a cozy 1940’s cottage on the rocky coast. Front porch overlooking the bay, islands, and the sea. Wading in the chilly clear olive-green water, picking up tiny empty snail shells, pocketing the special ones. Looking up now and again at the rocks and islands, listening to the gulls and water. Salt.

 

Deer Isle, Maine

There we discovered Bard Island, a Nature Conservancy site. Hiked through fairy-land woodlands to the Atlantic Ocean. At low tide, we walked between two islands. Rocks, sea, waves, salt, fog horns and a lighthouse. I think of Blueberries for Sal.

 

A Colony of Great Blue Herons

Incredibly, along NY Rt. 9 south of Lewes, NY is a wetland with dead trees each sporting a Great Blue Herons’ nest. From the road we could easily see the parents standing in the tree top homes tending to their young or waiting for them to arrive. Amazing.