Maple Tree Oct 2024

 

Backyard Maple Tree.  Dry year.  Colors not as free. 

In front of it - dead standing Cottonwood - mixed media.  

Muskrat lodge.blogspot.com

Black Duck Wood Carving Show

Black Duck, Minnesota

A country drive going North early in the summer.    A gathering of wood carvers. 

On display, and for sale,  beautiful wood carvings of water fowl and fish decoys   for those who like wildlife art.  

Also for sale, local and exotic woods  for  the carvers:  Basswood, Oak, Maple,  Walnut for starters…

Road trip to Ely.

 

Here today in Tower Minnesota, two otters play on the dock: 

Near Ely.  Near the Iron Range.  On a  Lake Vermillion passage way.  

Near the Superior National Forest.  

Near BWCAW - Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.  

Trails of well kept remote  highways, 

cut through millions of acres  of trees. Mostly firs.

 Birch trees turning yellow.

Hiding in them are the wolf, moose,  and bear.

But here today, there played two otters. 

muskratlodge.blogspot.com

Fall Colors on the bike path

 A new bike path in Otter Tail  County, and on its way to Maplewood State Park- through lakes, woodlands, and prairie.  

Swans gathering.

 
 

A flock of swans gathering 

near a tiny pond

 in the middle of the woods - kind of odd. 

muskratlodge.blogspot.com 

Muskrat Lodge: a cabin journal.

      "Little red rented row boat, not much better than no boat,  but at least it'll go with a row, row, row...".

   We have one of those - tied up on a small environmental lake.  Quiet, serene- a boat with almost no motor.  It’s electric.  

   Many people, on week ends and on  vacations, travel to the lakes.  My husband and I live here.   Usually we’re caught up in every day life, and gravitate to our  easy chairs.  We’re getting older.  

Sometimes, we have to make it a point to go out and row  the boat and  try and catch a fish, or just  paddle off into the lily pads,   past the muskrat lodge, where a single muskrat is  known to pop up its head and swim off in a different direction.  We’re  paddling towards the other end of the lake  and a for the pair of loons calling.   

   Today,  wood  ducks-  and two eagles fly over.  

   The  swans come and go, fly in low.  Make their presence known with a trumpet sound. 

    Sometimes I hear in to the night, an owl hooting  outside my  window.  

    I like the notice of nature.  Here in my back yard.  

     But there are  days we get in the car and drive down rural gravel roads  past other less populated lakes, especially late in the afternoon, when the deer come out to feed.  Maybe we’ll spot  a wild turkey or a fox.   

It's good to stop and take pause.  It's like getting in the car -  going on a vacation, and heading for the lakes!   

Muskrat wood carving by J.M.  

   muskratlodge.blogspot.com

Hey Pumpkin!

 

Hey horses ~ Hay!

Hey Pumpkin ~ Hay Pumpkin Hey!