A joyful loon update!

This blog post is a brief detour from my usual artsy post, to update a heartbreaking story about a loon that I shared on the blog here, almost two years ago, especially for those of you who are long-time regular readers of my blog.  Here' s a link to that former post.  At the time, I had encountered an injured loon, with fishing line and lure stuck in his neck and mouth, that seemed to be making it difficult for him to dive and therefore feed himself.

This weekend, I was kayaking at our lakeside camp ( the Adirondack term for a cottage or cabin or such), and I came across the loon pictured above and directly below.  These are crops of the the photos I took, as I wasn't able to get very close to the loon.  When I got home, I put the pics on my laptop.  I started zooming in and cropping the pics, and made an amazing discovery: this is THE SAME LOON as the one in my post from two years ago!!!  Take a close look at the neck in the pic directly below, and then compare it to the second of the two images below, which was taken two years ago and appeared in that former blog post.  While the new pic is not a great photo, you can see the fishing line and a swivel hook to a lure or some sort of weight on the line in exactly the same place.

 Here's another picture I shot this weekend.

While I am saddened that the bird has to live with this disability, it's clear he's found a way to adapt.  I noticed a very unusual fishing style, for example.  Generally, a loon will swivel his head around, and then dive down, coming up a few minutes later at some distance away.  This loon was lowering his head and neck, almost flattening himself against the water, before diving.  I couldn't imagine why, until I realized he was the loon with the injury.  I'm absolutely tickled to know he has survived and apparently thrived.  I've been asked, from time to time, if I knew what had happened to the loon, and I'm happy to be able to share this story with you.

If you read my 2-year old blog post, you'll note that I feel a bond with this loon, so I'll be on the lookout for him as the season progresses.  Here's a view from my kayak, as I was on my way back to our "camp" from my little kayak sojourn.   The lake water is cold still, so I wore a spray skirt on my kayak, but the sun was out and it was a glorious day.

 As my husband was locking up the camp before we left, I took a little walk up the road and saw these unfurling fiddleheads.  I've never seen the fuzz on them, so luckily my husband was patient while I took a few minutes to snap these pictures.  I'm sure that even if I get back there in a few days, they will not look the same.

 And finally, a last look at the lake from our dock, which my husband just put back in the water for the season.  We are lucky to have this beautiful location just an easy 35-40 minute drive from our home. 

My kitchen wall

my new kitchen photo wall

About a month ago, I showed you the new kitchen curtains I sewed for our newly painted kitchen, and I showed you some of my tin collection on display in the kitchen. For the final step in our kitchen renovation, I re-did the 'photo wall'. This wall used to display 8 underwater photos, shot by me while scuba diving in the Caribbean in the mid 1980's. That means the photos were 25-30 years old. They were faded, discolored, with blah beige mats, and I was sick and tired of them. So I went through my photos and eventually narrowed it down to a new selection of 8 Adirondack photos. I repainted the plain wooden frames with a nice shade of cranberry, got new mats cut for the new photos in a rich gray, and today I put them all together.

I love the way my new kitchen photo wall looks! But it's hard to get a good photo of the wall, because of all the glare. Anyhow, here it is, above, and below is a closer look at 6 of the 8 photos.

my kitchen wall

Random images from a lakeside Thanksgiving

The frost is on the pumpkin

 

  

    My main intent for this blog is as an art education blog, but honestly, some of my posts containing my nature photos get the most views and the most comments, so today I am sharing some of my oddball outdoor photos that I shot on Thanksgiving day (while the turkey was in the oven), and a few more from the morning after, all at my lovely Loon Lake.

Thanksgiving day, a kayak, and a loon

Two loons!

My favorite photo, morning after Thanksgiving

This photo is begging me to edit in eyeball details!

frosty morning

frozen ground

Identical twins.  No kidding.

 Oh well.  Above are two sideways photos, not intentionally.

Tell me what you think....

There is no religious intent here.  I am Jewish.

My little adventure

The trailhead sign

A beautiful autumn day - sky blue - trees a glowing amber - perfect day for a hike, no?
Early this fall, hubby and I, both retired, made a pact to get ourselves out in our beautiful Adirondacks as much as possible before snowfall - litttle hikes, climbs, walks etc (in addition to my kayaking excursions).  Because once winter sets in, I'm not so excited about the out-of-doors.  So yesterday we picked the nearby Pilot Knob Ridge Preserve, a climbing trail that would bring us to a gazebo overlooking picturesque Lake George, after a hike of 1.2 miles and an elevation climb of 650' from the trailhead.  There was also an option to continue another 1.5 miles to a waterfall after arriving at the gazebo.  Sounded perfect for a sunny afternoon!

 Here's what it looked like on the way to the gazebo.  Hubby took the two photos below; the rest are pretty much mine.

We've reached the gazebo!  The climb was strenuous and steep, loaded with tree roots, rocks, and vines, but we did it, and the view is awesome!  Other hikers we encounter at the gazebo say the waterfall usually doesn't have a lot of flow, but currently is wonderful, due to recent rainfall, and that we should continue our hike.

view from the gazebo - nice, huh?

beautiful view from the gazebo

Note the dark cloud in the photo below, also shot from the gazebo.  It did not look threatening.  So, bellies full of granola bars, we decided to head on to the waterfall, according to the advice of other hikers we had met.  Maybe not our best decision ever.

Along the way, we passed a couple of groups of hikers on their way back to the gazebo, and all said "the waterfall is awesome!  Keep going!"   The last group we encountered told us we were almost there.  Yeah!  So we kept hiking.  Then suddenly - black sky - and BOOM!  Thunder!  Hubby felt a raindrop and we decided, even though we were in spitting distance of a supposedly beautiful waterfall, we'd better scrap the idea for now.  We turned back and the sky let loose with a pelleting downfall of driving rain.  All those leaves on the ground got wet and slick, and the ground turned to mud.  My glasses (prescription, so I couldn't take them off) got rain smeared and fogged.    Wet tendrils of hair dripped into my face.  The wind kept blowing my hood down.  I couldn't see, and we were charging our way back toward the gazebo when I slipped and and went crashing to the ground.  But we still had almost a mile to go, so hubby helped me up and we kept going.  As we got back to the gazebo, the rain and thunder stopped and the sun came out brightly again.  Someone else at the gazebo shot these pics of hubby and me.  Notice  his wet sweatshirt, and look at all the dirt on me.  But we are smiling.

After gathering our composure, we proceeded down the steep trail.  I gripped my walking stick tightly and we navigated over the shiny wet leaves, rocks, and tree roots.

Ah! An orange trail marker (below)!  I was so happy to know that we were still on the trail, since the wet leaves on the ground had made it harder to see.  My leg was  hurting, especially since the trail was so steep.  But crazy me kept stopping to take pictures anyhow.  The rain-washed woods in the late afternoon sunshine were so pretty.  Everything was glowing.

 Hurray!  We are back at the trailhead!  I was so excited to see our car, but STILL, I stopped and took more pictures..

Trailhead - where we had signed the log book about 4 hours prior

still smiling!

I didn't look at my leg until I got in the car.  My pants were soaked with what I thought was  mud, but much of it was actually blood.  I had punctured my leg somehow when I fell.  My heavy support knee-high socks had  helped contain it, I think.  Got home and cleaned and bandaged it, and dear hubby ordered and picked up a pizza so we wouldn't need to stand and cook dinner, and then I curled up on the couch and watched TV.
So here I am at home today, not leaving the house at all, but instead relaxing with a bandaged leg and some bumps and bruises and aches and pains.  Hubby is tired and muscle-sore too, and just woke from a nap.  I think later I'll make some soup: kale, white beans, and diced tomatoes.  Sound good?

While you were working...

I drove past my former school today, and ended up just a few miles down the road, in  my kayak, here.

It was a beautiful October day

Nobody was on the lake  but me.  Amazing.

 

Our camp, viewed from the lake

Inside the camp, with wood stove newly installed!

viewed from above

 I had several other photos to show you, but they were all vertical and Blogger seemed to think it needed to rotate all the vertical photos.  So I took mercy on you and deleted them all, so you didn't have to bend your necks sideways, even though they included my favorites.  Does anyone know of a solution to this?