Showing posts with label Anniversary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anniversary. Show all posts
Friday, 15 July 2016
Anniversary
S and I portage down to the aptly named Portage Bay, although we do not get there by the ancient portage, which has long ago been covered by road and houses. We come down through the heavily wooded ravine that founders of the city preserved. We don't talk much on this walk. It is our 23rd wedding anniversary. It seems that all that needs to be said is being said without words. We just hold hands as the portage goes on.
The morning's gray has given way to a beautiful day with patchy sky and just a little more wind than is ideal. We pass through the crossing under place and circle the bay, noticing that the ducks have regained their colors. Cormorants, recent arrivals, are in the eagle perch on the railroad island. We cross the bay so that S can see where the floating cattail island has finally set as the water level of the lake drops. 
Friday, 15 April 2016
53rd Week Anniversary
It is one year and one week since I started keeping this journal, although I thought that today was the anniversary. It's not the year that is important though, instead, it is the fact that now I will begin to see the seasonal patterns of life in the marsh. I start in Portage Bay. It is in the 40's with a strong SW wind and it is overcast. I point out the beaver lodge to some little girls who wander by and one tells me that she once saw an eagle hunting a coot. Her description was accurate.
I pass east through the cut and let the wind blow me north while I write, passing a flock of coots along the way. The wind blows me through the channel between the west islands and shore. I am not sure if I will be paddling back across the bay or walking around it.
A western grebe and some buffleheads.
The birds are laying low today.
Into an inlet and out of the wind.
A heron and two more female buffleheads.
Cattails rustling in the wind. A comfort sound for fall. Whitecaps have formed in the bay. This means that the wind is near 25mph. Crossing in mid bay is not going to happen. The nice thing about the marsh is that there are always little inlets, just big enough for a canoe, to tuck into, completely out the wind. A short hard grind takes me to the lee of marsh island. Then east to the east marsh, where I spot one eagle, but can't watch it because I have to keep fighting the wind. I enter the east channel of the burial island finding a large flock of mallards seeking shelter, as I am. A tall golden tree, all others skeletal, swirls in the sky above.
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