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Thursday, August 23, 2007

Beached



You know how much I love Lake Huron. This week, some friends invited us to visit their cottage on Georgian Bay, at the northern end of the lake. The water up there is clean, clear, cold and shallow!

The sand is sticky.



And grabby.




It was a mild day, with light gentle breezes crossing the lake. On the big sand bar, the waves rippled along in perfectly straight lines.



And in a checkerboard.





I've never seen anything like that before.

I love the patterns in the sand. It's so shallow here, the ripples like the roof of a cat's mouth were visible forever. A washboard. Demented corduroy. It felt good on the feet!






Jethro sunk halfway up to his knees in the sandbar. The water was up to my ankles. I sloshed over to him and put my arm around him. We were eye to eye. This rarely happens.

If you stand there long enough...you'll sink.




There are no recording studios on the beach. The cell phone stayed in the car. He relaxed. He wore SPF 50 sunscreen and is still pasty white. I think we're up to seven days off so far this summer for him. He needs more. We miss him. It's been a great summer...for the kids and I. He's been working non-stop.

These are good problems to have. When you're self employed, the first concern is to have enough work to keep the business going. Now try being in the music business. In Canada. And refusing to live in the middle of the big city. He's doing well, very extremely well, considering all. But, this man has a head full of worries. He needed to stand on a sand bar about 100 feet out into a lake.

I splashed out to waist high and took the plunge. OOOOO cold! It was awesome. I'm a terrible swimmer but it felt so good to be immersed in that beautiful cold water. We needed to leave a few worries and burdens to be absorbed by the big clean lake. Huron can wash it away, even if just temporarily.

The kids didn't think of any of this. They puddled around, dug holes in the wet sand, and splashed each other. They were dolphins and mermaids.

It was good.

15 comments:

Doughnut said...

I am glad you got a diversion...water cleanses away many things. Hope you got to stay in it a long time to soak!

Anissa said...

Sounds like a perfect day. I have some strong internal attraction to water...and yet I live in the desert. Go figure.

We're counting the days till vacation. I've been waiting 6 months, but soon will see the ocean again. And I will smile.

Anissa said...

Actually, I should say it's been a year since I've seen the ocean. Six months since I booked the rental. I can't wait. :)

Heidi the Hick said...

Leroy, I was in up past my knees for over an hour and it was great- the cold water felt soothing on my sore knee. Good exercise too, walking in water!

Anissa, which ocean? I've never seen the Pacific but I've seen the Atlantic from three countries!

.:.KC.:. the brown eyed girl said...

I'm so jealous. I haven't been to the beach in a looong time.

terry said...

those are gorgeous pictures. i've never seen patterns like that in the water!

DINK said...

HEIDI THAT IS SO DAMN BEAUTIFUL....THE CHECKERBOARD THING, WOW I HAVE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THAT EITHER. SO AWESOME. THE SAND LOOKS FUN! GLAD YA`LL HAD SOME TIME TO GET AWAY FROM IT ALL AND RELAX!

katy said...

that looks like a great place to go to to unwind, and wow have never seen that effect of the water before it is really strange but beuatiful too.

Heidi the Hick said...

It took a few tries to find the right setting on the camera for the patterns in the sand. I think I had it on Macro. Can't remember. The cool thing is the clarity of the water. If it was murkier or deeper the lake bottom wouldn't have been visible no matter how I had the camera!

The checkerboard waves totally freaked me out. Even our friends, who'e been going there since childhood, hadn't seen that. What an opportunity!

Coffeypot said...

Jethro should get away a little more. It gets to were no matter how much you work or how hard you try, if you don't have a good mental break every now and then, you become less productive. Need to rejuvenate the batteries, ya know. I think the square waves were the UFO's moving out deeper water. You scared them.

Heidi the Hick said...

yeah I scare off UFOs on a regular basis.

You're right. He needs mental breaks. His work is demanding enough but running a business is heavy.

I think just getting home to sleep every night would be a start.

raine said...

I love your sparkly water photos - something about the transparency and layers of water and the lake or oceanbed that I am drawn to.
And Lake Huron! I am always amazed at phots of the great lakes, I have never seen a lake where you can't see the other side. Glad you has a good time.

Coffeypot said...

You're doing a great job of it. I haven't seen a UFO in... well... never. Keep up the good work.

Sleeping sounds good. I think it's time for my nazzzzzzzzz.

Wide Lawns said...

This was beautiful! I loved the pictures and how you described the ripples like the roof of a cat's mouth. I've never seen checker board patterns in water either. It looked almost supernatural.

Dr. Medusa said...

"Demented corduroy" Nice.

Glad you are having some wonderful beach time!