open water

"a great wind is blowing, and that gives you either imagination or a headache" -- catherine the great

shelf ice 8" thick piled up by the wind at whitebreast on red rock lake

crumb ice blown against the ice shelf sounding like wind chimes



sunset on whitebreast bay seen through polarized glasses



with ice off on the lake i put in at whitebreast ramp and shadowed the ice shelf around the bay for a couple hours sunday.  now with lower temps and expected 12" of snow i'm back to xc skiing this weekend.  with change in weather comes a "great wind".

the life aquatic

"no human being, however great, or powerful, was ever so free as a fish." -- john ruskin, 'the two paths'

take your marks..

 i had the opportunity to swim in the FSU outdoor pool monday and just got so intoxicated with the cool early morning and warm water that i almost forgot to stop swimming.  after two miles i thought i could keep swimming all day, but breakfast beckoned..  daughter stacia never got to compete here but was relegated to the indoor while swimming in college.  thanks for helping me find it jordan!

FSU outdoor pool in tallahassee, diving well w/ lap lanes

jordan and aerial artists w/o a catcher in the big top, need a better camera!

tight rope walkers

live oak w/ spanish moss, mount dora florida

lions and tigers and bears.. and ligers oh my

"all argument will vanish before one touch of nature." -- george colman the younger, poor gentleman

our recent trip to sarasota was to work at the "big cat habitat" with all the rescued exotic animals close by.  four days of living "with" the animals was surreal.  the rosaire family, long established in the circus world of animal trainers, were delightful people with a rich history of caring for these magnificent creatures.  this is truly a "sanctuary" where they can live out their lives with caring individuals and an admiring audience.  like us, they must work for their meals but have never known the wild.  the ligers were bred inadvertently in captivity beyond anyone's belief that it was possible for lions and tigers to mate.  the extravaganza on saturday was great and lasted two hours with a wide variety of animal acts.  just wished i could have had my kayak on the beach too...

quests

"sunshine is my quest" -- winston churchill

the days vary with the hour now and a sunlit day is rare indeed.  with blogger not allowing uploads from my files for a couple weeks i struggled not being able to journal.  i realize no one reads or views these lines but to mine own self be true..  now the contributions record the difficulty achieving the open water, with ice shelf on the ramp intermittently with thickness to resist rocks and hot words.  last week my sledge created an opening and the weight of me in the boat broke through to the channel.  saturday i put in at the south tailwater thinking the ramp was unusable but after carrying the boat 100 yards and paddling downriver i found the ramp free of ice and laughing at me heartily.  nature always wins.. rather like sidewalks and little girl's knees..

change

"it isn't the mountain ahead theat wears you out; it's the grain of sand in your shoe." -- robert service

you'd know that just when everything else went into flux blogger would change the way you upload pics and i'd be lost in the cyberfog of what to do..... maybe it is just my brain now that i have so little sway on what will happen in the future... guess i'll go paddle (it's only -20 degrees F).  they've taken away my thousands of words..

a new day/year

"enjoy the present day, trusting very little to the morrow." -- horace, carmina

i had to crack 20' of ice and then tugboat the floes out of the way to make the open water.  a two hour paddle in zero temps was warm as long as i continued to move.  a great way to start an unpredictable new year.  glad the channel didn't ice back up like last time when i had to roll over on my side on the shelf and slide back to the ramp. 

waiting on the "fiscal cliff"? 

wishing everyone a happy new year and safe paddling.

sugarplums

"while visions of sugarplums danced through her head"

xc skiing with son Taylor was enjoyable on a holiday weekend while my lake is frozen and only the river lies ahead for the winter.