Far too much time has passed since I was last in my canoe. I have felt a deadness in my soul, a numbing of the heart and I've told myself that my other projects had precedence. But work, and everyone's for that matter, suffer when..........oh! jeez! a belted kingfisher has just missed ramming me in the head by no more than 2 feet! It was so close when it skreked its warning call that it was positively ear splitting. It is snowing and snow changes everything in the marsh. The birds let me get closer, they seem to have something else to mind. An eagle sits overhead while I write. That thought is gone and I do not need to return to it.
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| the west lodge |
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The large dark patches of migratories are out in mid-bay. They took their time getting here this fall, but they did arrive along with reports of snowy owls. Someone even spotted a ribbon seal over on the Duwamish River. That is a seal that should be on the pack ice in the Bering Sea. So, maybe there was something to my feeling that the ducks came late...because other things are amiss as well.
Slush is forming on the surface of the lake. The snow, which has been falling heavier since I put in, is not melting when it hits the water. It can be scooped up into the hand...heavy heavy snowball snow. When I paddle, it folds, tears, and curls - an almost felt like quality.
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| Portage Bay Lodge |
Having circled Union Bay, I decide to continue through the crossing under place and to the bottom of Portage Bay. Large flakes drift down, flakes large than my thumbnail. the canoe is an inch deep in snow. It turns to sleet as I get to the drawbridge, but it returns to the big soft flakes again.
When I left the house the snow was a 1/2 inch deep. When I leave the lake it is 2 inches deep. When I get the canoe home it is almost 4 inches deep. It is spectacular.
