Magical Morning

the view from our dock, before embarking

At the end of October, I had a magical paddle in my kayak, that I never shared here.  We had stayed overnight at our 'camp' on the lake: me, my husband, and his visiting daughter.  After breakfast I looked out the window and the lake was covered in a foggy mist, like you would expect to see in the early morning.  But it was 10am.  I said "We need to go out on the lake.  NOW."

I got in my kayak  my husband and took the rowboat, and away we went.  With only one (obvious) exception, these photos are basically unedited.  It was amazing out there.

into the abyss

hubby and daughter, rounding the bend

Seriously, blogger has rotated this photo UPSIDE DOWN. I didn't ask it to.   Look carefully, and you will see bubbles and a pine needle floating on what should be the water.  Crazy.

This is really what it was like!  Those bubbles are from  my husband's oars.

What's that?  It's a loon in it's winter coat!

Lonely loon seemed happy for our company

  

From the middle of the lake - nary a ripple...

Fooling around with editing.  I intended this to be rotated, but Blogger rotated it back.  Oh well.

So why did Blogger think THIS should be rotated?!

So quiet and peaceful!  Luckily Blogger didn't rotate them both.

Beautiful Day

Hard to believe just a week ago I was blogging about my drive home in snow, sleet, and freezing rain. Yesterday was lovely and with the day off I decided I wanted to get out the kayak one more time before winter sticks. So off hubby and I went to our comfy lakeside cottage for the afternoon. The air was cool, but the sky was clear and and the sun was bright. I was the only person on the lake (except for the few minutes my husband spent in our little rowboat).

I thought the wiggly reflections of birch trees in the water looked like it would if you pulled a palette knife through thick oil paint.

Landscape Reflections by 2nd grade

This quick project began with a discussion of landscapes and reflections. We folded paper in half "the hot dog way" and drew our landscape on the top half with oil pastels. We then mirrored the colors with ripply lines in the water for the reflections, still using oil pastels, and finally painted (the water only) with watered down liquid watercolors. They were completed in two sessions, but I bet you could do it in just one if needed.

Many of my students live right along or near one of several small beautiful Adirondack lakes in our school district. Their artwork "reflects" a very familiar environment to them!