What a wonderful day on the water! The fog on the bay was slowly dissipating, rising toward the sky. The mist caught in the valleys and nooks of the mountains creating a magical, mystical feel in my spirit. The reflection of the mountains in the water always thrills and fascinates me. I try to capture it with my camera, but nothing captures it like our eyes can. Who can doubt the hand of God when you look at this beauty, ruggedness, and vast magnificence of the mountains!
So, I thought my birthday present was the cool shelves Dave built in the sunroom. I am always looking for ways to organize and keep things a little neater. I come up with the idea, roll it past Dave, he says, “sounds like a lot of work” LOL. Then I just let it sit there till he thinks it over and comes up with a better plan.
Not only did he build the shelves, but he also decided to take me out looking for birds for my birthday! And the weather cooperated.
The water was calm as we chugged out from the dock across the bay. The birds usually hang out along the shores, Gulls, Mergansers, Scooters, Eagles and Golden Eye are common at one time or another. Today I wasn’t seeing much and wondered if they all headed south.
The tide was out so the shoreline was a ways back, and that means it’s a little more shallow so you can’t get as close.
It wasn’t long before a few little white dots began to show on the shore. Sure enough, there were the gulls, with a crazy flock of Mallards among them. Down south the Mallards don’t spook very easy, up here they act like a rarity and take off like at the slightest sound!
There is a secret spot along the shore that in high tide – and at just the right time – you can shoot into a beautiful, quiet, secluded salt chuck for just a little while. Today wasn’t one of those times. But, there were birds back in the corner that were taking advantage of the calm and low tide. Some of them were obviously in their molt stage because try as they might, they simply could NOT get off the water. They reminded me of the mating ritual of the grebes. If you’ve never seen that, it’s pretty cool. Grebes run across the top of the water then do this cool synchronized dive.
So these little birds would frantically scoot out of the way of the tug (going all of 4 knots an hour – the tug, not the birds – lol) and then pop under water. Some of them are the tiny Murrelets, while others might have been Auklets. I have a hard time telling them apart as they are so fast to duck under water.
One of these cute little birds caught the eye of the Eagle sitting majestically on watch at the top of a tall tree on the bank. It took off in a half hearted dive towards the little duck but gave up before it had to work to hard and right about the time he dove underwater to safety.
We coasted around the back of the bay and into a side channel between the islands. As the sun started to go behind the trees it cast the most amazing streams of light through the treetops, reflecting off the mist and reaching across the bay. A rainbow of colors mixed in the mist, creating a look that any movie maker would love. Maybe that’s where they got some of their mystical land ideas?
I love to sit in the door of the tug and watch the water move beneath us. The patterns it creates are memorizing and calming. With the low tide, the beauty and texture of the rocky shore is visible. This land is so solid, much of it is bedrock, or granite. The lines, colors, veins of quartz, and shells on and in the rock create such amazing beauty. I never get tired of looking at them. It’s always amazing what can grow out of rock. Even the tiniest crack can eventually grow a spruce or hemlock tree if given a little dirt, some sun, and time.
Time is what I feel I have up here. Time to relax and live, time to breath, time to create, and time to love!
What an incredible gift of life this is for me. I am truly blessed.
And on this birthday, I feel alive, joy-filled, happy, healthy, and as we coast back to the dock, very loved by this time on the water.
PS: For more stories of off-grid living in SE Alaska, positive tips and encouragement, be sure to subscribe to the newsletter
Comments