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Oh I loved my birthday weekend, thank you so much for the wishes you sent, which started it off very happily. I meant to write in that last post that the mercies around me are as plentiful as acorns, but it came off sounding as if I love acorns. Ha, well among other things I do love them . . .
It is also a terrific pleasure when three people can talk and laugh and there is still a balance, like when you step into a boat that sits so gently and alone on calm water but you are certain when you get in it will not let you remain standing long enough to sit properly, but it does. Then when three of you manage to get in, stay in the boat, stay afloat and even skim across the water, there is an ease that surrounds you.
I didn't know I would need this time away with friends before embarking on a new fall semester of university activity. But I did, and the post-wedding restlessness I felt has settled. I am ready for a new school year. (Please remind me of this in a few weeks.) I feel a sense of composure returning, as if there are forty feet of cool, still, fresh water under me the way there are in our pretty lake.-
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75 comments:
Magnificent photos, Ruth, as soothing as your words.
Glad that you are recharged and renewed.
Happy belated birthday!!
Ah, you're back, yeah!
Wow.
I wish I'd been up sitting on a dock to see a morning like that...
Beautiful Pictures!!!
Beautiful words and pictures for a once-in-a-lifetime weekend. It relaxes me just looking at them.
Truly gorgeous photos. I could sit on that dock forever.
You are so fortunate to live in a clam and peaceful place. You will still have that during the school year to retreat to. Enjoyed the wonderful photos.
Oh - I so want to be there!!! Hubby & I are going to have to plan a trip to be near water soon. He started teaching yesterday - he's got a full load & crazy schedule this semester. We're so grateful that he got the tenure-track job that we're not complaining!
Love the mist rising off the pure still water of the lake. There is nothing like it. So relaxing...
Lovely photos with the fog hanging over the water. Peaceful words . . . :) M
Hi Ruth, beautiful photos with the boat and the mist. I can just imagine you rowing the boat and hanging out in the middle of the lake or in some small water lily filled cove.
Three is a tricky number indeed and takes some adjusting in order to keep afloat.
I am almost ready to begin the new year at school,and yes I will remind you of your readiness when your head fills with a day's activities and a nights rest doesn't seem adequate.
I am still longing to swim in the Great Lakes one more time before fall.
Ah, thank you, CottageGirl! It was very refreshing to get away with friends and be in the outdoors for at least part of the time. It was rainy and chilly, but I always enjoy being indoors at the cottage in that kind of weather. So I didn't mind at all.
I'm here, cher Alice. I think you and I would like to stay outdoors if we could, and there is a time for it.
What a delightful place to recharge the batteries. Simply gorgeous pictures, especially the first one. I love the anology of stepping into the boat and the calmness.
As your school year arrives keep looking at these shots and breath deeply. Best therapy around.
Violetski, it was only a tad early - 7:00 I think. But for someone like you who stays up late, that might be quite early. For me, who rises at 4:30 many mornings, this was downright shamefully late.
Thank you, Kanmuri! It's hard to miss when the lake is like this.
Susie, what is it about smooth water that soothes us so?
Kenju, well that reminds me of the Otis Redding song. And what is there to do on a dock except "waste" time?
Kat, no clams there, ha. I know you meant calm, but I had to do a double take since it was watery after all. You are right! I am going back to the cottage with my friend Inge for a writing retreat the first weekend in October. Glory!
Oh big congrats, Bug! I know how these things are, through my colleagues in the department. It's hard to get away once the semester begins. But it's a must, you have to make him do it. He can take papers to grade or writing to work on while you lounge around wasting time on a dock.
ds, I went out on a kayak a couple years ago for two hours and snapped the most amazing series, starting with the moonset, then fog as the sun rose and I was blinded with nothing but light in cloud. It is different every day.
Marion, fog and peace to you. Wait. I guess sometimes we need fog to ignore what is all around, eh?
Cathy, we should have sat longer in the lily pads, wish I'd thought of that. I used to, with my sister DeeDee. We'd sit and wait for frogs to climb back up after jumping off for fear of us.
Ohh, maybe I can swim in Lake Michigan before fall. I need to. I only touched my toes in it up in Traverse the weekend before, and that wasn't enough.
Ok, thank you for your promise. Let's keep each other sane, ok? Well, and your painting and my writing and pictures.
Sue, where were you in my comment box?? Suddenly you are there, but not there. Oh, you came in while I was writing comments. Mystery solved. Phew.
You've got my number. Sometimes when I'm overwhelmed by students I just have to look at a picture - mine or someone else's, like yours. That still life with the broken window is so sweet.
These photos are breath-taking and relaxing at the same time! What a beautiful place to live...
Love the owl on the dock...is he scaring away birds?
Gosh Ruth! I love these photos, especially the close up of the boat. It so peaceful.
I'm so glad you had a wonderful birthday trip:)
Ha, Oliag, the owl. Don and I bought it one year to scare away the Canadian geese that were congregating and pooing all over the waterfront, dock and raft. It didn't work. Funnily enough, this owl has lots of brothers and sisters all around the lake. I don't know what happened to the geese, but I didn't see one this year. And I guarantee it wasn't the owls, because the summer we put ours out it didn't make a bit of difference. I wonder if anyone has heard what happened to the overpopulation of geese?
Anet, the rowboat is ancient. DeeDee and I used to go out in it when I was 13 and she was 15, that's FORTY years ago!!! No wonder I feel creaky!
Oh, and the boat was old then!
Belated BirthdaY wishes from me to you.
Glad you are feeling rejuvinated and refreshed.
It Must be that extra year of "wisdom" you have now achieved! lol!
Those Photos today just speak to my inner most self,So thought provoking!
Gorgeous!
Such lovely shots, the perfect antidote to a muggy, smoggy summer's day. I especially love the reflections of the clouds in the water.
Blather From Brooklyn
I am not sure where you were for your birthday celebration, but the images of the still, peaceful water are simply gorgeous. I love your description of the balance and ease of the the three of you in the boat!!
Happy Belated Birthday!
Happy belated b-day :)
Your photos are simply magnificent! I remember when I used to visit before I suggested a book for your photography ... I still think that's a grand idea!
Your photos are wonderful! I, too, am a photography enthusiast and have posted many on my blog. Thanks for sharing!
Your photos are indeed, deep and reflective. What a blessing it must have been to share your birthday with good friends in such an inspiring environment like this.
Very very belated bday wishes ruth.. and trust me am dumb in finding it with the URLs. Reminds me of a time I was mailing a friend whos emai ID was hernameaug10 right on her bday asking for some silyl help :) and you know what happened on aug11 :)
Have a happier year ahead
Thank you, Cupcakes, for the birthday wishes. I rather like belated ones as they just keep coming and extend the birthday fun. I'm glad the photos speak to you deep inside, the morning did that to me.
Annulla, I'm glad this pretty lake cooled you down. My daughter lives in NYC and she said it has been very hot and humid. I wish you all would get some of our cool breezes soon.
Caroldiane, we were at Horseshoe Lake, which is in the middle of the Michigan mitten, a little to the left. It is a lake of 97 acres, and the morning is the very best time to be there. Thank you for the birthday greeting.
Hi, Drowsey, thank you so much, I'm glad you like my pictures. A book would be fun, and now that you can make your own, it wouldn't be hard to do. I've thought about it for gifts. My mother-in-law loves barns, for instance.
Thank you for the birthday greeting too. I think I will still like having a birthday even when I turn 93. I am a Leo after all.
Debbie, looking at your photos I see you are drawn toward Nature too. You'll never stop learning if you keep looking around consciously with a camera. And sometimes I have to put my camera down and look, just look.
Arti, it was the first birthday I remember spending away from family, and while I missed Don, Peter, Lesley and Brian, I felt very grateful to have friends who took such pains to be together and whose stories blended with mine in meaningful ways.
Beautiful photos! I love autumn and these pictures capture the essence of it.
Ha, Nautankey, that's funny. I don't pay attention to URLs either. As I said earlier to Cupcakes, I like belated birthday wishes because they keep extending my birthday, which for me is a good thing. I know not everyone likes birthdays, and that might be a bad thing. I guess I wouldn't have mentioned mine if I didn't like celebrating it and sharing it with friends, right?
Thanks, Annie, I guess there is a hint of autumn, you're right. The light is starting to change, and there is a gold glow on the trees.
Glorious photos, absolutely perfect and still and silent. What a fantastic spot to savor the blue and golden days already weaving themselves into memory. This posting is like an oasis. Welcome back.
Fantastic words and art. So glad you were able to decompress for your birthday!
Ahhhh!
Everyone needs time off. The boat photos are to die for. Really gorgeous Ruth.
Ruth - regarding the Canadian geese population?...they all moved to RI:)
Stunningly beautiful photos and an eloquent text. What a lovely spot to land for a few minutes!
Your pictures are so lovely – this must be a very serene area. We also left for a few days, to the mountains of North Carolina and visited a 8,000 acre estate (I’ll have a post on it sometime.) There is nothing like nature to get renewed in body and soul. I am pleased you had a great time with your friends and shared this moment.
Ruth,
I've always been a proponent of birthday seasons - like Christmas and Easter, we need time to prepare for these personal festivals, time to celebrate, and time to reflect when it's all over.
There couldn't be a better place for reflection than your lake. I love fog, so the photos are doubly appealing. But the stillness! That may be the single greatest difference between the ocean and a lake - lakes can be stirred up, but an oceans swells and heaves by its very nature.
Your title, "letting the deeps settle back down" is so appropriate, suggesting an end to chaos and renewed creativity.
The creation epics, particularly Gilgamesh and Genesis, understand the tension between creativity and chaos. Interesting that tehom, the Hebrew word for "deep" in Genesis, seems to be related to the name Tiamat, the primal saltwater ocean represented by a dragon in Babylonian myth and used as a symbol of chaos.
Those folks may not have had modern scientific method, but they had a pretty firm grip on reality!
Magnificent pictures and post to go with it. I feel recharged already by taking all this in. Thanks, Ruth. Your blog is gift. Splendid.
What a dream landscape! What a feeling it must be to wake up and see this! Sit down, watch it ... with a cup of coffee maybe...
... and as you don't seem to mind belated birthday wishes, please receive mine as well!
Thank you, Celeste. Since I read your word "oasis" the word itself has been an oasis for me. Language is profound, isn't it?
Gemma, I think I did nothing but talk, eat and take pictures. Oh, and clean up at the end. There is a season for that kind of activity.
California Girl, thank you. Any person with a camera who has gotten up early at the lake or other body of water knows that it's like fishing in a barrel. But I did get up and out, didn't I?
Oliag, oh, I'm sorry. I used to love them, and I now I dread seeing them.
Welcome, Deborah, I hope it was a calm landing. I sure enjoyed reading your splendid words, and I look forward to more at The Temptation of Words.
Dear Vagabonde, we are hoping to go to South Carolina at Christmas. Since reading Pat Conroy I've wanted to visit the salt marshes. I have three baskets made from the sea grass there, and they seem to carry something of my soul in them.
Hello, Linda. My mom modeled enjoyment of aging, and I am quite happy to keep celebrating birthdays. I have never related to women who say they don't want any more birthdays, though I understand it.
Your words about the flood epics remind me of what happened yesterday, quite extraordinary really. I think these things come in threes, and yours was the third. I am under a great deal of stress at work, so much so that as I feel it coming I find that I stop breathing. Yesterday I forced myself, quite literally, to breathe. I went to my welcome little couch in my office, laid back, and closed my eyes. I visualized my breath like the surf of a gentle sea, one breath in with the waves and one breath out as it ebbed. When I got home I mentioned this to Don, and he showed me this amazing video at wimp.com he'd just seen, which shows the ebb and flow of water to the sounds of a woman breathing. See and hear it here.
How wonderful, Jan, thank you.
Peter, hello, and welcome back! Morning at the cottage is what I love, yes with coffee. Thank you for prolonging my birthday.
I'm listening to the Sting video and viewing your images, awesome.
Bob, this is a great version of this song, isn't it?
Looking and admiring all the beautiful images, cherries and squirrels, I forgot to say Happy Birthday. And I have to say again, those images in this post are surreal. A place to be and relax. Anna :)
Ruth,
The video is extraordinary. I'd never heard of the site, so your post is a double gift.
Things may come in threes, but tonight there was a fourth, posted on my blog in response to your comment - a video of the Buffett song that got me through the first post-Ike days. The song? "Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On."
Amazing.
Thank you, Anna, morning is magic, that's all. If I get up and out, it is usually easy to find some magic.
Thank you, Linda. That Buffet video really made this series even better.
Wimp.com is quite something, my son introduced me. He watches it regularly, I usually forget.
This is a post about the Calm before the Storm, Ruth. I'm so glad you had it for your birthday weekend.
These are beautiful photos, Ruth -- I can tell you were at a special and lovely spot. Restorative, too, before the onslaught of eager new faces! Happy belated, and happy new year as well!
Boots, yes. As wonderful as it was getting away, I didn't get laundry and house cleaning done! Oh dear! But you know me, I didn't worry about it and just caught up as much as I could last weekend. :)
Thank you, thank you, Jeanie, you've been busy too. September is when a new year begins for me, and I think for you and WKAR too. We will have lunch soon and talk about Paris!
This place looks like heaven! What a great place to decompress from a summer filled with hustle and bustle and non-stop activity. Good for you!
Dutchbaby, this cottage and lake are best early in the morning, before the boats start their noise.
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