In Pursuit of Wonder

So much to see and soak in, to revel in – my attention shifted to our right. A good sized tree had been felled by a beaver. How awesome it would have been to watch him chew around the base of the tree with his mighty teeth, and to have…

March 22, 2016 Larry pulled off highway 84 on the northeast side of Schmoker’s bridge into the small, graveled parking lot. McCarthy Lake stretched before us to the north and Schmoker’s channel flowed on the south side. He parked the truck parallel to the bridge, facing the water (west). Hank,…

March 9, 2016 I felt miserable with a fever and chills, achiness, and a nasty cough that violently shook my body. I felt so awful, it seemed I could barely walk. Despite being sick, I met up with Larry. (We had scheduled to go to the dunes two days earlier…

Walking along we noticed in some places the birds had been working over the seed heads of the various prairie plants, the remains were sprinkled a top the snow at the base of the plants. “Do you suppose we walked over some snakes?” Larry asked, eyes gleaming. “I hope so!”…

February 16, 2016 Around 9:00am, Larry and I left his place for the sand prairie, the Kellogg – Weaver Dunes. We drove along highway 84, noting red-tail hawks. I observed the prairie on either side of us. Larry decided we would walk onto the dunes from the north, so we…

Larry walked ahead, I trailed behind, though I took fewer photos. Constantly looking around at my surroundings, including the ground, I spied a spider walking along (in January!). It was so unexpected. I called to Larry, “Look, there’s a live spider walking about!” He turned around, walked back to where…

A wall of wild rice rose up on our left, waving in the wind, golden brown in color. Trees, a woodlot, loomed on the horizon beyond it. The height of the wild rice masked the distance to the woodlot. Ahead of us was the vast, gray, frozen lake. Another forest…

“There’s a duck hunting blind. This would be a difficult place to get ducks out of.” Larry pointed out the blind, explaining how they’d use it. Tiny trees, only a few inches in diameter were bent and broken over. After lingering for only a few moments, we were on the…

January 29, 2016 Larry and I finally hiked Schmoker’s (down the channel we tried canoeing but were unsuccessful). We pulled off the road just before the bridge, walked through deep snow down the ditch. Larry’s young dog, Hank, scouting ahead of us. Cautiously, we picked our way down the bridge…

Larry said, “At least you’ll get a good story out of this.” Within feet of the shore, a log stuck out into the water from the bank. Part of it looked to be submerged in the water. Larry was holding the canoe expecting me to step into it, walk to…