Small Distance On A Fine Day

Before hitting the trails at the base this afternoon to run, I stopped briefly along the shore of Woods Reservoir to take some pictures.

I had not planned to stop  I had planned to head directly to the trail head.

But the day was warm and very clear and very lovely and for a while, before slugging my way through yet one more run, I needed to be alone and by the water.

The world was shining and I stood looking out over the lake willing myself to relax.

I was wound up for reasons unknown, and I knew that first walking quietly along the shore by the lake and then a good run on trails in the woods would sort it all out.................

During my brief visit I saw only one boat on the water.

This too-zoomed-in picture shows two fishermen casting from a power boat across and on the other side of the lake..........

Not knowing at the time what this place actually was, or what it was called, I named this small island Bird Island.

It is located in the center of this portion of the lake and when I first came across it while kayaking many Summers ago it was filled - absolutely filled - with thousands of birds of all kinds.

It is an empty and abandoned place right now, but in only a few months it will again be filled with the prehistoric screeches and sights of a busy and growing bird habitat.

I found out just recently that its real name is Elder Island but to me it will always be Bird Island..............

In only the four months that we have been back in Tennessee I have spent much time standing on this bridge.

In early October I stood here when everything in middle Tennessee was still green and lush and growing and the weather had not yet begun to cool down.

In November I stood here when the world was a changing place of gold and red and brown and yelllow Fall colors.

In December I stood here when the temperatures alternated daily and sometimes hourly between very cold and surprisingly warm and the trees were finally completely bare.

And I have stood here in January.  Another month of temperatures alternating wildly between cold and warm, but still always a place that is irresistibly quiet and supremely beautiful............

Before I headed to the base late this morning I stood on the porch in the back yard and watched Jamie with amusement as she gleefully terrorized a squirrel that was running across the far side of the privacy fence.

When I got home this afternoon Jamie was limping around on three legs, and holding one of her hind legs completely off the ground.

She could not put weight on it, could not climb stairs, could not climb up onto the couch.

LC had given her a baby aspirin and figured out where she was sore by the time I got home, and the problem seemed to be with her left hip.

Our best guess is that she hurt it while chasing squirrels in the back yard.

After a few hours of inactivity and human attention she slept for a few hours, continued to limp around for another couple of hours when she woke up and now seems to be recovering.

Which is good news and we are relieved to see that she is OK............

A person should go out on the water on a fine day to a small distance from a beautiful coast, if he would see Nature really smile. Never does she look so delightful, as when the sun is brightly reflected by the water, while the waves are gently rippling, and the prospect receives life and animation from the glancing transit of an occasional row-boat, and the quieter motion of a few small vessels..........Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827