One spring morning at the cove

There was no wind last night, so the cold fell straight from the clear sky onto our fair settlement.

It was in the low 50s inside the camp when Dame Judi decided that it was time for the household to rise and shine and give her her breakfast.

We had one of our earliest first saunas last night. We have a lot of spruce pieces left over from the construction project two years ago. Spruce burns hot and fast and pops loudly. The aches of the day's work softened and soon were gone. 

A month ago, the ice was still thick in the cove. Our first dip was tentative and brief. The second lasted a minute or two. There were a couple of guys fishing nearby.

"You got a sauna in there?" one of them asked.

"Yep," I replied, neck deep in the water. "We'd be even crazier otherwise."

The camp came through the winter in good shape. We lost one tree, a hemlock, just a week ago. It snapped about eight feet from the ground and fell sideways in the front yard.
It had been dead for awhile, likely because of the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid, and should have been culled when we had the tree guys here last year.

All the other trees look ok, but it's still early. The maples, birches, and oaks are still two or more weeks away from full foliage. 

Our neighbors visited yesterday afternoon, reporting on their winter and plans for the summer. At their shore, they'd been scolded by a male duck that had been protecting his mate. We later saw both ducks touring the cove.

In the evening, after sauna and supper, Sandra went outside and identified the sound of the Northern spring peeper in the vernal stream nearby. Our project this season, among others, is to listen to and catalog peepers and then frogs. 

It's that transition time, when something of what you need is at the other place. We have a list of things that we forgot to bring yesterday. Let's hope that we remember the list when we go into town today.

We've had our breakfast and our second cup of coffee. It's time to split wood for this evening's fire. 

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.

This year's view from the cove

Jupiter is still bright in the west in the evening sky, bright enough that I can see it without my glasses. I couldn't see the boat out on the lake. I could hear the voices of the boaters, but I couldn't see the boat. Jupiter, though, I could see.

The lake water has warmed enough that we can stay around for a few minutes between visits to the sauna. Two weeks ago, it was a jump off the dock, hit the water, and get out as quickly as possible. We'd get back into the sauna, but our legs felt like they were covered in cold cloth.

After sauna, the aches of body and soul were gone. There's a lot to do in cleanup, routine work, and new projects and most of the work calls on muscles that haven't been called on for a while. There's a pile of rocks to be moved, a stack of wood to be split. leaves to be raked, trees to be trimmed.

Most of the work can become meditative, only the work, only that rock that needs to move 40 feet to the south. A wheelbarrow would make the work easier, taking four or five rocks at a time instead of just one. This way, though, I get to think about each rock and where it should go. If I had a plan, I'd use a wheelbarrow.

When my father was my age, he put an oil tank in the cellar, sideways. That the heating system never worked reliably isn't the point, I think. He did stuff. If it worked, that was good. If it didn't work, he'd move on. The oil-fired heating system never worked reliably and was replaced by a barrel wood stove that worked fine for 30 years.  The barrel stove connect to the chimney that was to be used by the oil burner.

The lake has warmed so that a thin bit of fog settles on the surface in these cool nights. Heating and cooling take away the aches of the day.

 

One weekend in May

We had a fine celebration on Saturday, honoring Michael for his graduation from Assumption College, Tess for her 14th birthday, and mothers Marian, Sandra, Jennie, Lynn, and Karen.

We went out to lunch, 20 of us. I tried to sit at the kids' table, but was asked to leave because Cassie wanted to sit with her cousin, Caroline.

There was plenty to discuss at the other end of the table. Jennie has completed her book and sent it to her publisher. Joe will graduate from St. Peter-Marian in a couple of weeks; he will go to Southern New Hampshire University in the fall.

After the lunch, we brought Marian back to the nursing home, noting that we'd be missing Mother's Day celebration with Elvis.

Mother's Day itself was a quiet day at the camp. In memory of Elvis, we had peanut butter and bananas for lunch.

We're still settling in after last year's wonderful renovations. Few things are where they were and lots of things aren't there at all. My father kept puzzling quantities of unexpected parts, such as a jar full of 1/4" brass screws, but we couldn't find a single wingnut. We have long lengths of antique rubber extension cords, the type that don't kink or get inflexible in the cold, and yet we found only one electrical wire cap, which is two fewer than what we needed.

Sunday we had sauna. The water is fresh but no longer cold, in spite of recent rain and no special warm spells. We have a good supply of leftover pine from the construction project. It's dry and burns hot. Mix in a little oak and maple and you get a great fire.

From a time with crowds full of laughter and hope to a time sitting on the bench overlooking the cove, hearing the planes heading down Route 2 toward Boston, it's how the days are now.