BirthdayPart2
Sep. 13th, 2025 07:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ismoAfter well over 10,000 steps today, plus swimming, I'm so tired I can barely type, but in a good way. We started off taking our coffee to the riverbank. The water is low right now because it hasn't rained enough this summer. The light reflects from the sandy bottom and the tufts of weed wavering in the current, giving the water a coppery green and gold color. After we breakfasted on coffee, an orange, and part of the monster cinnamon roll, the Sparrowhawk confessed he wasn't sure exactly what he could do at the moment. I proposed various alternatives, and the one that caught his fancy was that I could get a folding chair out of the car, and he could nap in the chair by the river and see if he felt better after some rest. While he was resting his eyes, I enjoyed the company of two large fish who decided to post themselves just opposite where I was sitting. As they sculled idly to hold their places, they faded in and out of visibility. When the light caught them just right, they could be seen, but when they chose, they faded so completely into the shadows of the ripples and the weeds that it was as if they never existed. And then one of them DARTED upstream with the speed of an arrow. I was astonished to see what power he could exercise when he felt like it.
The Sparrowhawk said he didn't sleep very much, because some crows were conducting their business loudly from tree to tree across the water. It was like one of those urban arguments in the old tenement days, when half the neighborhood came out to shout their opinions from the balcony. However, he felt refreshed enough to undertake part of the lost lake trail, one of our favorites because it has lovely views and not too much up and down. With a few judicious pauses for rest, we made it around the first loop of the trail. And then we gathered up our beach stuff from the car and walked a very SHORT way down the beach and set up shop under the umbrella. I went in first and told him the water was great. He never believes me, and probably shouldn't! But after he ventured in, he admitted that it wasn't actually bone-chilling. It had a particular beguiling silkiness that is one of its moods, with waves that made a gentle rocking motion that is fun to swim in, but doesn't have the roughhouse punch of waves that challenge you to stand up to them.
After a swim and a brief second dip, we went back to the motel to change, and ordered the meat plate from the local smokehouse, with beans and salad. We were too tired to make more than a dent in this BBQ extravaganza, but it was tasty. Now the sunset is like a gilded screen. The becalmed water is a flat streak of ethereally pale blue, with a rose and gold wash above it, a streak of cinnabar to mark where the sun went under, and the gulls like brush strokes to provide an accent. We're drinking ice water and putting our feet up.
The Sparrowhawk said he didn't sleep very much, because some crows were conducting their business loudly from tree to tree across the water. It was like one of those urban arguments in the old tenement days, when half the neighborhood came out to shout their opinions from the balcony. However, he felt refreshed enough to undertake part of the lost lake trail, one of our favorites because it has lovely views and not too much up and down. With a few judicious pauses for rest, we made it around the first loop of the trail. And then we gathered up our beach stuff from the car and walked a very SHORT way down the beach and set up shop under the umbrella. I went in first and told him the water was great. He never believes me, and probably shouldn't! But after he ventured in, he admitted that it wasn't actually bone-chilling. It had a particular beguiling silkiness that is one of its moods, with waves that made a gentle rocking motion that is fun to swim in, but doesn't have the roughhouse punch of waves that challenge you to stand up to them.
After a swim and a brief second dip, we went back to the motel to change, and ordered the meat plate from the local smokehouse, with beans and salad. We were too tired to make more than a dent in this BBQ extravaganza, but it was tasty. Now the sunset is like a gilded screen. The becalmed water is a flat streak of ethereally pale blue, with a rose and gold wash above it, a streak of cinnabar to mark where the sun went under, and the gulls like brush strokes to provide an accent. We're drinking ice water and putting our feet up.
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Date: 2025-09-14 02:54 am (UTC)Also, at the risk of being repetitive, I must say again how much I enjoy your writing. It seems like you are just chatting about your day, but then you build images, as if you are painting. Then the story of the day moves along. Even if you are resting, the story is not static.
Thank you!
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Date: 2025-09-16 01:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-09-14 03:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-09-16 01:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-09-14 06:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-09-16 01:33 am (UTC)