Fall Colors on the bike path

 A new bike path in Ottertail County.  It goes through and past 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.  We go past the muskrat lodge, looking for the pair of loons calling in the distance.  

   Today, the wood  ducks-  and two eagles fly over.  

   The  swans come and go, and I hear, in to the night, an owl hooting  outside my  window.  

    I like the notice of nature.  

   There are days we get in the car and drive down a rural gravel road 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 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!  

Looking back at 2011 Spring Sportsman's Show long ago

National Fish Decoy Carving Show in Perham.  One hundred and fifty tables of decorative  fish decoys on display and for sale.
The spearing season   has closed, although there's still ice on the lakes. 

Fish decoy collecting is still in season,  and carvers   have been whittling and painting  probably all week,  and all winter. 
    This, the Perham show is the twelfth   for Jay, and  along with fish decoys, he's made a set  of minature ducks. The  many  flying over  in Ottertail County, have been an inspiration.  
   

Sportman's Show.

 
Barbara remembers the years 
 her husband  flew his plane
 to Alaska guiding wolf hunts. 
 (Of course this pelt is of  a coyote.) 
 "My grand daughter wants a wolf pelt,"  she said.

"It's a grandpa thing."



Hike to Inspiration Peak

Barb and I are on our way to Inspiration Peak for a morning hike. This is my first time here.  Barbara, however, is a lifelong resident in the area.  The drive down the Ottertail Scenic Hwy - ( 78 and onto 38) is rural, quiet,  serene and very green.   A bright red Coca Cola truck  passes us, and seems out of place as  it disappears into the countryside. We make a turn and wonder, have we gone too far?  But no, there it is, a parking lot and a wooden sign. Barb looks over  the surfaced trail. 

"It's been  over forty years since I was  here last,"  she said, "and it's almost in my own back yard!" She reaches for a diamond willow walking stick  in the back of the car,  and  explains,  she really doesn't need it, because she has new knees.  

We have a  gentle climb,  and  good opportunity to chat as we go and as we  breath in the scenery.  At  1700 feet, we're in the tops of the trees.  We pause and take in the view from every direction.  

There is a plaque to read and I read it out loud:  This "vista was well-known to Sinclair Lewis.  From the prairie-covered crest of the hill, he wrote, "There's to be seen a glorious 209-mile circle of some 50 lakes scattered among fields and pastures, like sequins fallen on an old paisley shawl." 

Lewis chided Minnesotans for not knowing the "haunts of beauty" in their own back yards." 

I look closely at the paisley swirls of fields and hills, glistening lakes, and the golden touched trees.  

"The oaks have grown so tall!"  Barb exclaims.  

We take it all in and make our way back down again. An SUV with Wisconsin plates pulls up with  two small canoes on top.  Out jump three generations, and a golden retriever. They run, walk, and meander up the trail.  I wonder, are they on their  way to a cabin at the lakes, or between state park destinations ?   This is a nice wayside rest, a great place to stop and stretch.

Barb and I have a cold drink of water from the pump, and sit on the rocks before we drive off to a near by town for lunch. At  one of the gifty tourist shops,  I take note of a display of shawls in the colors of summer and early autumn, but none have a paisley pattern like Sinclair Lewis talked about - with sequins fallen.  

Art on the Street

At the downtown Art camp, the kids gathered and painted wooden cutout loons.    Each was given  paint. Each used their own imaginations.   

Loons on the wall at  City Hall ~  delightfully unique!