Skip navigation

Paddling into November

Yesterday with my boat piled up high on the truck I drove to Patterson Lake. It might be the last paddle of the season. Snow is in tonight’s forecast and according to local predictions, we may be skiing before the end of the month. I sure hope to get my boat out again before winter sets in for good.

 

The weather was chilly with a light breeze and brilliant sunshine on the fading autumn foliage. It’s been too long since I’ve been in my boat and I felt clumsy to start but soon got into a rhythm. A Pileated Woodpecker crossed the lake in front of me. Hooded Mergansers acted as though I was a threat and flew before I could approach closely. The males are already showing off their big hoods while the females act disinterested. I heard but didn’t see, Mallards. No little birds were heard – no chickadees, nuthatches, finches.

 

At the south end of the lake, I observed these green round ‘things’ in the water. They were small, mostly less than a quarter inch in diameter but some a bit larger. Are they algae? Some sort of eggs? Seeds? In some places they were piled several layers deep; other places they covered the lake bottom in a single layer and in some places they were sparse. I’ve never seen them in the water before. With me on a boat and these underwater, they were hard to photograph. I got some in my hands their texture was spongy. I should have taken them back to shore to get a better look.

 

My boat matched the scenery.

 

I also saw a number of dead fish at the south end of the lake. Are these 8-10 inch fish planted kokanee? Are they spawned out? I also saw schools of similar fish swimming in the same area.

 

This not quite grown-up Bald Eagle flushed from a pine as I paddled by. Looking closely, you can see that it has one of those small fish in its bill.

A few seconds later it flew back in the other direction but now the fish is in its talons.

Life is full of excitement.

The Neighbors’ Chickens

Our neighbors have a fabulous garden and I imagine that part of that is due to their chickens. These stocky egg layers spend much time scratching and eating bugs and making fertilizer within the protected confines of the garden. When I visited yesterday, the big red rooster was ruling the roost, so to speak, chasing away hens that got too close to where he was foraging and making sure others were producing fertile eggs. Mostly the hens ignored him and went about their business – eating, pooping and laying eggs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fog Drops on Flowers

Life’s adventures are conspiring to keep me from going hiking, paddling or having other fun times away from home. What to do? Yesterday I went outside for some errand or another and I noticed that the rising fog was leaving tiny droplets on all the flowers and foliage. I rushed upstairs to get my macro lens to capture a few images before the moment dried up and went away. Flowers still blooming include sweet peas, nasturtiams, parsley, coneflower (well barely still holding on to some color), asters and some sunflowers. Temperatures tonight are forecast into the twenties and tomorrow night, the LOW twenties. Maybe even the teens. Good thing I got a few more images of summer before it all goes away.

Perennial aster, one thing the deer don’t seem to eat at all

 

 

Coneflower or echinacea, something that deer seldom even taste

 

Leeks, inside the garden fence

 

Nasturtiam, also inside the fence

 

Parsley umbel growing in a planter on the deck

 

Oh yeah, these sunflowers are inside the fence. deer love them.

 

Sweet peas. I like sweet peas. These grow on the garden fence. Fortunately, they grow tall and the deer only get some of them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yup, I really like sweet peas.

 

 

 

A Rainbow-filled Day

The weather has moved on to fall. All signs point to it. Yesterday smoke columns showed up all over the valley as folks worked on clearing up brush and weeds from summer projects. A Bald Eagle landed on one of our pines. It has replaced the Osprey and Red-tailed Hawks of summer. We moved the camper into a neighbor’s barn. I worked on cleaning up the garden. Rain showers came and went alternating with rainbows and sunshine. This double rainbow extended across the valley. I’m sure there are pots of gold out there somewhere.

Something fun

It’s been a long hard week for me. But I remember that it started out much better a week ago yesterday. I went to the canine agility trials at Confluence Park in Wenatchee and saw lots of great dogs doing great (and some, not so great) stuff, running, jumping, going through tunnels and so on, all while having fun. I have over 1000 images to edit from that day. Tomorrow I will start on them.

On the way home, shortly after dark, my car hit a mule deer on highway 97 below Pateros. At 60 mph. It was not a good thing. I’ve never been in a car accident before and it left me shaken. And it left my beloved Honda a total loss, according to the insurance company. Luckily, I was not hurt and the deer, well, she got off the highway but I have to believe she died out in the bitterbrush. It took a couple hours to get my car towed up to Twisp and Ken met me with a big hug and we cleaned out most of the stuff and went home to a glass of wine and tried to relax.

And then on Tuesday I had to report to Okanogan for jury duty. ‘Everyone’ says, oh don’t worry, they always send everyone home, no big deal. Not so. I was the 13th juror selected for a three day trial. They had picked twelve and sworn them in and then the lawyers conferred with the judge and he asked me to join the group and swore me in separately. I nearly cried. And the stories we heard from the witnesses were enough to make a person want to stay home behind locked doors. There’s a big scary and sad world out there with people stuck in a milieu of drugs and crime.

Yesterday I started the process of car shopping. Ick.

So, should I try to put it all out of my mind and just think about happy things like the dogs running and jumping just for the love of their people?

I think so.