This is what my backyard looked like at 4:45 this morning. Although I would have preferred to stay in a state of half-sleep, I dashed back inside for my camera. Within moments the scene had changed and the pink was gone. So glad my sweet Jessie girl had to greet the morning on the early side of things today.
It is mid-day now, and the early clouds have not burned off, but that makes today a perfect day for puttering and poking away at projects that need tending. In the midst of such puttering I decided to walk down to the lake to grab an old towel that I’d left sitting there for nearly a month.
When I got within twenty feet of the water the smell of the lake – a smell that I’m still working to put into words for you – hit me in the gut and I was amazed to find myself involuntarily taking a lung-filling gulp of that air. Olfactory memory is an amazing thing – a simple smell triggering old memories and emotions – for better and sometimes worse. For me the smell of a Maine lake in the summer is a good thing – family, love, safety, childhood. All of this filled my lungs and my heart this afternoon, and for a few minutes my clenched jaw muscles relaxed and my shallow breathing was replaced with a sweet deep breath.
The smell of the lake drew my attention away from the dirty towel I’d gone to retrieve and out to the water itself, which was another fine bit of photo-taking luck today, since the loon I’m trying to photograph was floating in the lily pads. I have not had much luck getting good shots of the loons when they are on open water, so I sprinted back to the house for my camera and tried to capture the loon in the lilies.
The Nature of Maine 