Paddling About

I've been loving Cranberry Pond.  Got out kayaking a couple of times last week.  I've finally got the hang of assembling my kayak:  setup time is under 10 minutes, and it comes out of the water and folded into the trunk of my car in no more than 5 minutes.  Leaves more time for paddling!

Both days were mostly sunny and breezy.  Still, there's spots on the pond where everything is so calm.  Look at how lovely everything reflects in the water.  So much blue and green.  Ahhh....

Each visit is an adventure:  new things are growing or blooming.  I catch a glimpse of a fish, tadpole, turtle or bird I hadn't noticed before.  Several people were fishing from the water's edge on Friday.  I heard someone exclaim: "I caught a pumpkin seed!"  My first thought was, there's squash at a pond?  Until I realized they were talking about a fish.  Ha!

There was a lot more green in the pond than last week (thankfully, no duckweed).  The big lily pads are now surrounded by little lily pads.  I love the combination; it makes me think of quilting fabric. 

A lot of arrow arum (had to look up the name) is growing around the edges.  They popped up in the last week, as well.  The extra plant life is harder to paddle through.  Amazing how much drag lily pads create.  It takes more effort to explore some areas than others. 

In previous trips the lilies were nearly exclusively large yellow with rounded petals.  This week they were nearly all small, white pointed petals with yellow stamens.  Not a ton of them, but they were beautiful!

We are finally getting some much needed rain.  Yay!  So no kayaking in the next few days.  While the kayak is in dry-dock, I'm attempting to repair the neoprene fairings (they've started to rip).  I hope to have the kayak mended and ready to go when the weather clears.