Messing About in Boats

“Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.”

  So said Mr. Toad in "The Wind in the Willows" by Kenneth Grahame – and the toad was right.

 

And so, I took my canoe to the river on a beautiful summer morning to paddle around a large island.

In addition to the blue sky, crystal clear water and trees gently swaying the wind there’s always something else to see. It may be the gnarled roots of silver maples that have been exposed by high water –

Or the string of small rocky islands, remnants of  boom cribs used during 19^th Century log drives on the river –

There were birds on the island, Canada geese –

And a young belted kingfisher –

Spotted sandpipers –

And the female ruby-throated hummingbird that zoomed in as I was photographing a cardinal flower –

The cardinal- flowers weren’t the only colorful flowers in bloom, there was the beautiful and terribly invasive purple loosestrife –

Plus a scattering of another species that has escaped from cultivation, garden loosestrife –

In the water floating-leaf pondweed raised its inconspicuous green flower spikes –

And, on the rocks of the boom cribs were button bush in flower –

Here and there on the boom cribs there were the weathered old logs of their frames –

As the morning drew to a close and the temperature rose it was time to leave the river –

But – I’ll be back!