A listening tour

We're in the center of a small high pressure cell, so it's nearly calm. The sauna smoke rise nearly straight up, drifting just slightly to the west-southwest. Once the fire in the stove gets going well, it'll burn cleanly and we won't see the smoke.

We toured one side of the lake by kayak this morning, admiring the early mountain laurel, noting the camp for sale just around the corner, and looking for neighbors. We didn't see anyone and only heard Elijah, the small dog who lives at the point of the cove.

Sometimes, you set out to explore with the idea of learning something specific. We need to do that, to learn intentionally. Other times, though, we go out with our ears tuned to whatever sounds come our way. What we learned was that it was good to be on the lake, paddling easily, letting the little bit of wind push us.

After our tour, we jumped into the water. Rocco went first, anticipating that we'd follow soon, which we did. The rainy weather has cooled the lake considerably. It was refreshing.