In Pursuit of Wonder

Feb 5, 2017 It was a nice day for a winter walk; sunny, temperature around thirty, with a breeze. Jesse and I set out around 1:30 pm, out the back door, through the backyard and under the pine trees, across the road, and into the snow covered field, in a…

We continued westward. A beautiful cottonwood tree towered above us, leaves shining in the morning sun. A birch tree mingled with it, growing up between branches of the cottonwood. A dead snag leaned into the water, one end dipping beneath the water’s surface. I’m not sure why it appealed to…

August 23, 2016 Over a month slipped by without my noticing, even Larry was wondering how it could be almost the end of August already. We decided it was time to get the canoe out again. We left Larry’s before 9:00 am. Larry said we’d canoe up McCarthy Lake since…

Further south, we saw a white water lily. So quintessential of story books and fairy tales, you’d expect to see a frog sitting on the pads. Smaller than the lotus, and not nearly as far out of the water, indeed some appear to be sitting on top of the water.…

July 14, 2016 Larry and I pulled into the Weaver Landing at 8:15 am. Instead of going up McCarthy Lake or going down Schmoker’s channel, we canoed the Weaver Bottoms. Larry backed the truck up to the boat landing. With Larry in the bed of the truck, and me on…

May 22, 2016 This evening, I went to the Weaver Dunes on my own, at about 5:00 pm and stayed until 7:00 pm. Going at that time of day, the only creatures out and about, besides people driving by on the road, were insects and ticks (I found four on…

We meandered onward up the channel. Larry said, “There’s an otter right ahead of us.” It was swimming directly ahead of the canoe, several feet away. We observed it for a few moments, only its head and tail stuck above the water surface, then Larry corrected himself, “nope, a muskrat.”…

The water all around us was dotted with green pickerel leaves. The point was to our left now, perpendicular to that is another peninsula of sorts ahead of us. That peninsula had only a handful of trees; it rather seemed like an island of dried wild rice plants beginning to…

“Goose, up close to the vegetation on the right,” observed Larry. I looked to our right. “There’s more up ahead to the right.” I looked and looked but couldn’t see it. “I don’t see it.” When I finally was able to pick it out of the vegetation, I was amazed…