Alone on the River (SWF)

Alone on the River




Great Blue Heron in tree

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Visiting

Zig-zag Ice on Caesar Creek Lake

To see you now,
in wrinkles,
and gray, turned white around the edges,
resting here, alone,





while all have gone,
taking their smiles and laughter, home--




It is like looking upon the face of an old friend.

Summer Water from canoe
2008

Caesar Creek Lake is a flood control and recreation reservoir created by the Army Corps of Engineers in the 1970s. In the warmer months, the water level is high enough to make the lake a popular destination for fishermen and water enthusiasts. We canoe here often.

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The Last Song of Summer

Autumn leaves on Lake

A warm October afternoon.
Clear blue sky, sunshine and ever the slightest breeze.
Perfect for canoeing on Caesar Creek Lake.
Even more perfect than one of a summer's day.


The water level is low.
Either in preparation for catching winter runoff or as a result of this season's dryness, this U.S. Army Corps of Engineers flood control project reveals the remnants of the many trees that once covered the banks of Caesar Creek, before the nearly 3000-acre lake was created in the late 1970s.
Navigating between them becomes a sort of slalom course.
Large muddy swirls appear and obscure the bottom, as startled fish scoot from beneath us.

Great Blue Heron in tree

Broad expanses of exposed silt and sand become attractive feeding grounds for herons and migratory shore birds. The broad belly of our red Old Town canoe, barely clearing the shallows-- now, not more than several inches deep.

Killdeer on mud flats, gulls in background

Greater Yellowlegs, Tringa melanoleuca

Yellowlegs with Killdeer, for scale

Cormorants float, neck-deep in blue water, then emerge to sun, wings held high on one of many protruding logs.
Back and forth, in small flocks they fly past us--almost at eye-level.
So close that I can see their orange chins clearly.

Double-crested Cormorant , Phalacrocorax auritus
sunning with out-stretched wings

In the narrowest finger, we paddle on, past shores crawling with late summer brightness.

Morning Glory

Inaccessible to all except canoes and kayaks, this undisturbed water is clearer than the usual murky brown of mid-summer.

Northern Water Snake, Nerodia sipedon

Autumn leaves in clear water

And from the sunny shore, a katydid sings summer's last song.

all photos click to enlarge

Winter blues

The gray is beginning to affect even me.
Everywhere I look the landscape is painted in neutral colors.
And, although I find it relaxing to sit and look out over this colorless water backed by a white winter sky, I would rather be engaged with it, wading the shallows or peeking under rocks.

The silvery ice is almost gone.
Two birds fly past. Gulls. White and gray.
Above us on the bank, cedar trees in drab olive tones drop needles onto the rocks at the shoreline where we sit, bundled up, having lunch, wiggling toes to stay warm.


The intricate details of the fossils lining the shore are absorbing. And the afternoon light slants low upon them through the bare trees from across the cove.
All these little creatures...450 million years ago, now washing free from the gray shale.







I remember what it felt like to watch my children sleeping--a peaceful rest, while I waited for them to wake. How I looked forward to what we would be able to do together.
And how our lives paused until each nap was done.

Winter is about darkness and rest.
As those who long to engage with the earth, wait for her to wake.

Catching the winter blues

Caesar Creek State Park is well known for its fossils--brachiopods and bryozoans from the Ordovician period.
And one of the largest complete trilobites,
now in the Smithsonian.