Paddling, Playing (Bells), Perfect

 Bruce and Jenny invited me to go paddling with them again today. Well, I had planned to get a lot of work done, but with the weather so gorgeous... you know I went paddling.

There were a lot of water lily pads, and the sun was making the underwater stems glow with an amazing neon red color, but I was not able to capture a single picture of this. You'll have to settle for the pads floating.

We saw a fair amount of wildlife, but I didn't get many pictutes. there were painted turtles sunning themselves (I got pictures, but they are nothing special), little fish (Bruce thought maybe bass), two kingfishers, a hawk, and another heron. I got a couple of pictures of it, but was shooting into the light, so they aren't great.

No frog on a lily pad, but how about a snail?

Love the reflection of this floating log.

The low hills surrounding the lake are in full autumn color. What lake you ask? Shhh. I promised I wouldn't share too loudly. It's a very special place. Gooseneck Lake.

I'll end with my two favorite pictures of the day. The color of this pattern on the water, and the stong horizontal and vertical lines just makes me want to dance.

Maybe this is my favorite: floating leaf.

I have so many good pictures, I can't even share them all.

We paddled some out toward the middle, and not that going along the shore is a bad thing, but I discovered that I really like being out in deeper water. We spent 4 hours, and it just didn't seem that long at all.

And, I at least got one of the handbell videos processed. Sorry, these take a while to do.



What I had hoped to do today was re-read the part of Vacation from Dead Mule Swamp that I have written and see if it's really going to work. I have been doubting that it was worthy. After the long break from writing on it, it's easier for me to assess how readable it is. I'm up to chapter 20, and still feeling good about it.

Got some sad new today that a good friend has had a serious stroke. Of course, no one gets guarantees in life, but at our ages, there are certainly fewer good days left than previously. I am extra thankful for the perfectly wonderful day today.

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