Little Blake Lake

After the rain all day and evening on Friday, Saturday dawned cloudy and foggy. But it was a great day.

I was lazy and read a lot. Nancy spent almost all day in her office. She's editing another romance novel.



I went up the road past Hunky Dory to the culvert where the Straight River runs under the road. As you can see the Straight River isn't straight.




I spent some time clearing some brush from around a couple promising young birch trees,



and I found myself watching passing clouds, something I'd never do at home.



I also sat on the deck and watched the leaves changing color. Compare the picture below with the one from last week (see below).



At sunset, I was reminded of the Sidetrack calendar. There's a brick embedded in the patio for the first day of almost every month. The bricks are positioned where the shadow from the corner of the house falls on the patio at sunset.



It was nearly October 1, so the shadow on Saturday evening fell just short of the brick for the beginning of October.



I think we're missing bricks for February 1, March 1, and November 1. Over the last 13 years, we've been here and the sun's been shining at sunset at least once for all the other first days.

On Sunday, I stripped the dock of the decking that David and Nancy built back in '02. That removes about 400+ pounds of weight. While it's still not a one or two person job, hauling it out of the water will be easier.





While poking around the yard I found a some late flowers still blooming. It's a ground cover plant in one of the front hosta gardens.



Next week, we're closing things up. Watch for details.

We got away a little earlier than the past couple weeks. So we arrived, even after grocery shopping, when it was still light. I can't say the sun was up, because there was a complete overcast and a light rain.



After unloading the car, I was able to do a circuit around the yard. One late flower in the garden and a very curious mushroom in the lawn.




Good, simple dinner and then time to read and nap before calling it a day. Ah, the adventurous life.

Saturday at the lake was mostly a work day. Well, as much as a casual, restful day at the lake can be a "work day."

I worked at digging up the foundation of Red Tom. I dug out more rocks and added them to the garden borders. I dug out more rubble and dumped it out back. I think I'm getting close to leveling out the spot where Red Tom once stood. Then I'll go to work on the old fire circle.





Nancy worked on the new sliding screen for the door on the south side. The old aluminum framed screen had gotten bent out of shape after years of use (and abuse). The new screen required a lot of planning and measurement, but it looks great. And we can have the door open for cross breezes.





We rewarded ourselves with dinner at Paradise Landing, near Balsam Lake. Really good food. Starting next week, it will only be open Fridays, Saturdays, and Sunday mornings. Such is the life in a resort community when the summer people stop showing up every weekend.

Sunday morning dawned still and foggy with a dose of clouds. The sun was coming up as I bought a newspaper at Jonzy Market.



When the sun finally came up, it was clear that fall is here even though it doesn't officially begin for a couple days. It was one of those mornings when it was easier to see how many leaves had changed by looking at the lake than by looking at the trees.



I wrestled the hammock out of the lake room and enjoyed a good book and a brief nap in the open air. Of course, I ended up with a sunburn on my face for the crime of falling asleep.



Life is good for us. It's difficult to be thankful enough.

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We got off in the late afternoon. Cooked dinner at Subway in Amery.

We arrived at sunset once again.



The treat was watching neighbor Will fishing off the dock as the light disappeared.

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We arrived at Sidetrack just after sunset on Friday.


After getting supplies and computers into the cabin, we sighed a bit, relaxed, and quietly enjoyed the evening. N played Scrabble on her new iPod Touch, I read a library book.

Saturday morning dawned gray and quiet. A flotilla of geese paddled north up the lake, disturbing the mirror-like surface with their wakes. The dawn chorus is gone, but I did hear a heron, some crows, an eagle or two, and a pileated woodpecker somewhere in the trees east of Sidetrack. Later in the day, N got a close and clear look at one the magic birds for the first time. Her comment was, "That's a BIG bird!"

I finished my book and got some breakfast and did some yard work. I cut down a bunch of nettles, brush, and saplings around a couple of good looking young birch trees out by the garage.

Then I hauled away most of the rest of rubbish from the Red Tom chimney.

[Clarification from neighbor Skip about Red Tom. Red and Tom were two guys. Tom was the Dr. Hoff whose wife painted the Shakespeare House. Red was his good buddy. The two of them were the builders of the chimney back in '53.]

Sunday started much like Saturday did. The surface of the lake was so still it would have been hard to tell which was lake and which was sky if I hadn't been so sure I was standing on the ground.




When looking at the photos from this morning, it's hard to tell sky from lake without some visual clues. Can you tell which picture is upside down?




Here are some pictures with clues. But it still doesn't look right. The kyaks and the canoe seem to be floating above the water somehow.

I did have a treat when an eagle began circling overhead. Even with my miserable "point, push the shutter, wait, and shoot" camera, I was able to get a little image of the big bird as it swooped down to pick up what was probably a dead fish.


Sunday afternoon, as N worked on editing a ms and making the retractable screen for the sliding door work, I worked on writing one. I finished just about everything I could do without being online. The sun and a tool left on the deck just looked attractive.


We picked up our stuff and headed home after making plans to come back next week.

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I finished a week at the lake and some of the work I needed to do. The sun went down again.



It was all wonderful.

A few days later we went back and had a fine weekend. Stopped in Amery for a couple library books. Sank came over on Saturday morning for coffee while Nan caught up on her sleep.

Even if the Labor Day boat parade [pictured below]was a bust. We got to talk to lake friends and plan to enter the neighbor's pontoon in next year's parade. I read a lot. Nan edited a lot. I got a little work done. I never did get to Cafe Wren.



The sun set again on the end of the day and the end of summer.



We'll be back.

Off to Sidetrack in a couple hours if we get everything done at home.



Photo by J.D. Fisher