Our Woods

We've almost finished clearing the trail along the lakeshore.

This mushroom nestled in the fruiting moss was too pretty to pass up.

There were Canada geese on the flow this morning. We see and hear them frequently this year.

Wildflowers

I was working in our woods this morning, clearing up more on the trail along the lake, and saw these.

Indian Pipe (Monotropa uniflora in the Pyrolaceae) was peeking up all over under the hemlocks.

There seem to be fewer Gentians (Gentiana sp. in the Gentianaceae) along the lake this year than in the past. (Note on 8/16/07 - many more appeared later.)

I found this gerardia (Gerardia sp. in the Scrophulariaceae) on the lake shore as well.

HP #7 - no spoilers

Finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Warning to anyone who has not finished it yet - the last 100 pages must be read in one sitting. Once you start them, you won't be able to put it down until you finish.

My only disappointment was that JKR didn't tell us what jobs most of the surviving main characters end up doing. I guess she is leaving that to our imaginations. But I'm sure she knows.

Abandon Ship

Or kayak in this case. We've decided to abandon our boat-building project for this season. We had decided we were not willing to give up our kayaking trips to work on it. And W is so busy with work there is very little other time to devote to it. We don't want to leave the hull partly done over the winter so we will stop it for now. Hopefully we'll have more time next year.

Kayaking Little Tupper Lake

Today we had a great paddle on Little Tupper Lake with Nancy and Larry. We paddled nearly 13 miles around the lake, including down the creek to Rock Pond until we ran into massive beaver dams.The weather was very calm so it was a great day for it.

We saw an osprey, lots of mergansers (one group contained 10 adults and 17 babies), several pairs of loons (one with a baby), and a bald eagle being chased repeatedly by gulls.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Should be about half done by the end of today. Not bad given everything else that is going on. The weather has been gorgeous - finally.

Stuff

Saw a red fox today. It came out of our driveway and crossed the road in front of us as we drove up.

Today's Lake Placid Sinfonietta performance was at 4 PM so it wouldn't interfere with the ironman race the following day. (I just looked it up - the ironman is a 2.4 mile swim, a marathon, and a 112 mile bike ride. How do they do it?) We really enjoy the small ensemble of talented players. It seems so much more crisp than a big orchestra. We can't believe the season (6 concerts in 6 weeks) is already half over.

Since the concert got out at dinner time and since downtown Lake Placid was reported to be a zoo with all the folks in town for the race, we went to the Mexican restaurant - Desperados - right across from the arts center for dinner. It was really good. Definitely worth a return visit.

And of course, started Harry Potter #7. No spoilers please.

C Clamps and Copper Wire

Is this any way to build a boat? According to the instructions it is. It should begin to look more like a boat in the next few days.

Boat Building 101

They tell us these boxes contain the makings of a 21' tandem kayak. Time will tell.We finally started the project today and glued together the pieces that form the sides and bottom of the boat. It's a good thing we have a big garage.

Who pulled the plug?

Answer: The power company that owns the dam that our lake depends on. Fortunately, we knew in advance that they would be lowering the lake. Otherwise, it would really have been a shock. They are doing repairs to the dam and we won't have our lake back until at least the end of September. Sigh.