Jason and I hopped in the Jeep with a kayak and canoe tied down hoping to find inviting water. We settled on Burgess Lake. Jason fished and I paddled around snapping pictures of everything in sight. I was listening to a podcast interview with a photographer. When questioned about how she takes such phenomenal pictures, she stated that it’s practice and volume. For every one or two good photos chosen for publication, she may shoot between 50 and 100 pictures. I am practicing to be a descent photographer. I enjoyed practicing with the macro setting as evidenced by this coolie flower pics.

I looked high and low, mostly low, to find the perfect lily pad flower, this was the best I took, not necessarily the best there was to see. After paddling across the lake from south to north, I began exploring the west side of the lake looking for my lily pad and flower photo and hoping for a good goose shot. There was not a good goose photo to be had, though if you browse the pictures, there are a few geese represented. On my way back south I found an inlet. It appeared wide enough to navigate so off I went.

At the start of the inlet a flash of color caught my eye, so I paddled to the side to see what it was. The proceeded forward until I felt like I should at least tell Jason where I was. When I saw Jason several minutes later, he inquired as to where I went. As he watched me paddle along, I just disappeared into the trees. I told him I came bearing treasure and paddled over to give it to him. In one breath, he thanked me and asked why he didn’t have it 20 minutes earlier when he needed it. I called him an ingrate and said it was in the tree. Ok, I made that last part up, but he say he needed it 20 minutes earlier and wished loudly that he had the bobber then.

We paddled a bit more, then both headed to explore the inlet. I didn’t go as far by myself as we did together. The map above doesn’t due justice to how far and how difficult the paddling was, but it was fun. The difficulty involved narrow and shallow waterway. I had to take my paddle apart eventually, I kept hitting the plants or the bottom when I tried to steer alternating sides.We turned around when the treefall and plant life was too thick.

After reentering the lake, I headed east. There were a pair of swan and too many to count geese. You will have to click on this photo to see it, but I was allegedly paddling too close to one swan, I was squawked at, then the swan took flight. I didn’t dare use my camera for fear of the bird turning on me after I spooked him/her and my good camera getting too wet. Therefore, I used the disposable camera with the colors turning out just a little weird. One can still see the swan on the right side of the picture.

Though this may sound weird, I think next time I will bring a knitting project-a dishcloth or something. I paddled around a lot at first the floated and let the wind carry me while I wondered what I would do while Jason fished. There were many houses along the northwest and northeast shores, so there was nothing to be done there. I eventually settled into photographing everything for examination later. I may even begin designs based on my photos, I will have to bring a notebook with me.

Tags: fishing, kayak, lake, lily pad

We have no set traditions for celebrating Independence Day yet, so we invited people to play on the water with us. Mom and Dad P. were busy with cooking for a catering job and running to the farm. Josh and Julie joined us on the water. Julie and I in our kayaks floated merrily down the river while the boys in a canoe fished. Julie and I found the creek near Granny’s house and explored as far up as we dared. There was plenty of treefall to navigate. After playing in the inlet, I made it my mission to pass under as many trees hanging in the water as I could. Pictures were taken by me with my Canon and Julie with a couple of disposable cameras left over from the wedding. A map of our adventure on the river. You can see the river to the east of 131.

After playing in the water, we hurried home to make dinner for the family, only to find Granny waiting in the driveway. Mental note, don’t plan dinner until I know for a fact when I will get off the river. After dinner we went cleaned up and went to town with Julie and Josh to watch the fireworks. We met up with another Josh and were entertained quite nicely.

Tags: family, july, kayak

Two mornings in a row I have been out of bed before 8:30, who knew I was capable. Yesterday I visited two clients with some nasty little spyware and viruses. I’m not quite done with either machine, mental note, only visit one client a day! I’ll return Thursday to one and Friday to another. I called the oral surgeon’s office last night. I like to leave a message so that if there is an open appointment, the receptionist can grab it for me, selfish, yes, effective, quite. I’m off to what’s trapped in the hole that used to house a tooth in a few minutes.

On the productive front, I have gotten some wash done and my garden is half planted. I need to catch up with Mom P. so that I can learn how to put the rest in, that or I can use a search engine of my choice and hope the sites I find have good information for Michigan. I have two 4×8 beds open and two 4×4 beds open. I want to put tomatoes and peppers in one of the large beds, possible one and a half, I’ll use the other bed to plant more of what’s already down in a few weeks. The smallish beds may become my herb beds, haven’t quite decided that.

I had hoped to head to the river this afternoon to try out my new Otter, but a trip to Cadillac isn’t quick, I also need to go to the vet to pick up meds for the critters. As a result, I feel like I’m playing tug-of-war with myself. I want to accomplish a thousand things in a time span that can accommodate 10. I have knitting to finish, continue and start. That list just keeps growing. My first reusable grocery bag is nearly complete, I have to bind off two sections of 10 stitches. I don’t know how I want to do it, so I am going to try one method on one side and the other on the other side, then I can compare stretchiness.

Tags: garden, kayak, plants

I spent the day running errands with my friend Patty. We had sandwiches for lunch and set about completing my list. I had several business supplies to track down-ink for the printer, invoice/receipt forms, and business card holders. I found the ink and decided to hold off on the rest. I made a quick detour to the health food store for some flour and went off to hunt yarn. On my way to hunt yarn, my eye caught a sign advertising a sale on canoes and kayaks this weekend. I stopped in and saw many pretty ones hanging in from the ceiling. I hit three different stores and didn’t notice much of a pricing difference for given models. I compared online and it’s all about the same, here are the ones I looked at closely. I’m leaning toward the Old Town Otter, the blue one on top, but it comes in other colors. I can’t see whether the foot rests are adjustable, the seat is. I need to see it, otherwise, I’m looking at one that’s not pictured-camo color Mainstream Sound 9.4.

I rarely seem to make it to GR to use the 40% off coupon at one of my chain stores. The coupon publishes every other week, the opposite of my schedule. Since I was down with wisdom teeth removal last week, I decided to head to GR some time this week to take advantage of the savings. I have to say, it takes some doing to make it all work out in the end. I’ll call that chain, Store H. I signed up for the paper flyer from a different store, we’ll call that Store J. There is yet another chain craft store in GR, we’ll call that Store M. Store M didn’t have a flyer this week, nor a coupon, Store J usually has a coupon for every two or three week period. The coolie thing about stores is competition. Competition is good, so the stores accept coupons that are supposed to be good at other stores. Store J doesn’t have anything I want right now, well, ok, there’s stuff I want, but not badly enough to buy it. Store M has started carrying large skeins of cotton yarn, 350+ yards for about $8. Now, I don’t want to pay that much, so I used my Store J coupon there. Store H has some packages of yarn that I covet. If I use a coupon, for about $15, I can get three skeins with 450+ yards of cotton. Here’s the fun part, the store has a strict one coupon per person per day policy. I can’t rationalize two trips to GR the same week to save 40%. The lovely lady suggested I get a second person to make my second purchase. I drafted a complete stranger to buy my second treasure. Luckily, I had cash with me so it was easy. She laughed over the whole thing and said at least she’d have something interesting to talk about later.

I also found some yarn to use to make some socks for a friend of Granny’s as well as a neat hand spade that has metric and standard depth marks for planting. I can’t wait to plant the garden.

Tags: craft store chain, grand rapids, kayak, office supplies, yarn