Sunset at Turtle Lake

July 2nd happened on a Friday in 2010 and was the beginning of my favorite holiday. So late afternoon we headed up to Turtle Lake with our friends Tonya, Dustin and Daughters for a picnic supper at Brother Bear and Seazettie's.

Softly the evening came with the sunset. ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

While waiting for the coals, the Bear sights out a potential croquet course.
Maya assists the Bear in laying out the 3D Croquet court.
The women study the court having at one time been courted themselves.
Maya and the Bear leave the court to play a little Beach Boce Ball.

I can see her lookin' fast in her faded jeans

She's a hard lovin' woman, got me feelin' mean

Sometimes I think it's a shame

When I get feelin' better when I'm feelin' no pain

Sundown ya better take care

If I find you bin creepin' 'round my back stairs ~Gordon Lightfoot

Light up your face with gladness

Hide every trace of sadness

Although a tear may be ever so near

That's the time you must keep on trying

Smile, what's the use of crying?

You'll find that life is still worthwhile

If you just smile

That's the time you must keep on trying

Smile, what's the use of crying?

You'll find that life is still worthwhile

If you just smile ~Words by John Turner & Geoffrey Parsons. Music by Charlie Chaplin

Tell me story, tell me story

Tell me story, remember what you said

You promised me you said you would

You got to give in so I'll be good

Tell me a story, then I'll go to bed ~Jimmy Boyd & Frankie Laine

I'm just not gettin' that part of the story...and that croquet court...hmmm.
The B's knees, and a very nice smile by...(it must be) a Teddy Bear.

Peace... is seeing a sunset, and knowing who to thank. ~Unknown

Natural and artificial floaters, note loons.

I just can't believe it's so,

and though it seems strange to say

I never been laid so low

In such a mysterious way

And the course of a lifetime runs

Over and over again

But I would not give you false hope

On this strange and mournful day

When the mother and child reu-nion

Is only a motion away, ~Paul Simon

Papa Dustin, very proud of his girls secure in his capable arms.

The sunrise is Gods greeting - the sunset, his signature. ~Unknown

`Get to your places!' shouted the Queen in a voice of thunder, and people began running about in all directions, tumbling up against each other; however, they got settled down in a minute or two, and the game began. Alice thought she had never seen such a curious croquet-ground in her life; it was all ridges and furrows; the balls were live hedgehogs, the mallets live flamingoes, and the soldiers had to double themselves up and to stand on their hands and feet, to make the arches.

The players all played at once without waiting for turns, quarrelling all the while, and fighting for the hedgehogs; and in a very short time the Queen was in a furious passion, and went stamping about, and shouting `Off with his head!' or `Off with her head!' about once in a minute. ~Lewis Carroll

The chief difficulty Alice found at first was in managing her flamingo: she succeeded in getting its body tucked away, comfortably enough, under her arm, with its legs hanging down, but generally, just as she had got its neck nicely straightened out, and was going to give the hedgehog a blow with its head, it WOULD twist itself round and look up in her face, with such a puzzled expression that she could not help bursting out laughing: and when she had got its head down, and was going to begin again, it was very provoking to find that the hedgehog had unrolled itself, and was in the act of crawling away: besides all this, there was generally a ridge or furrow in the way wherever she wanted to send the hedgehog to, and, as the doubled-up soldiers were always getting up and walking off to other parts of the ground, Alice soon came to the conclusion that it was a very difficult game indeed. ~Lewis Carroll
And one of the mallets-heads for the lake bringing the game to an end.

I love to be here at the beach to watch the sunset - the greatest performance of Nature. Like in a theater, but it’s free. ~Gina De Gorna

“What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.” ~Crowfoot

The sacred lamp of day

Now dipt in western clouds his parting day. ~William Falconer,

"The sky broke like an egg into full sunset and the water caught fire."“~Pamela Hansford Johnson

It is almost impossible to watch a sunset and not dream. ~Bern Williams

Give me the splendid silent sun at sunset. ~Walt Whitman

Gaea

“When I admire the wonder of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in worship of the Creator” ~

Mahatma Gandhi

Today I saw a red and yellow sunset and thought, how insignificant I am! Of course, I thought that yesterday too, and it rained. ~

Woody Allen

Servin' Leftovers

I may have mentioned earlier that Barbara went nuts this year with flowers, even a vegie or two...well, tomatoes and rhubarb. It's been fun watching her have fun. Oh, and she's got big plans for raised vegie and flower beds for next year, expect I'll be digging and building that. Thank goodness I have a template named Bixby Boy.

I'm serving leftovers here, individual pix that I guess I want to share that just don't fit into a sensical story. "So how is it different" you say? About half are about flowers, couple critters, and a couple brothers. I wouldn't normally post photos of flowers, I leave that to folks who know something about them, but I do take requests...so here ya go.
Over the back fence to the back yard. The trees are looking pretty good, after having to share the sun with a forest, the trees over the past few years are branching out to new areas of sky.
I stand upon the stage prepared to give a speech, and no one came. Some hippie came and was in such a hurry to leave, they left their wine skin behind.

Political speeches are like steer horns. A point here, a point there, and a lot of bull in between. ~Alfred E. Neuman
Lots of green, some yellow, white, and other colored flowers, and some other stuff too. Don't know much about this stuff, but it sure looks green and lush and makes our yard look better.
A big bunch of flowers with different colors sitting on the corner of our back deck.

If you're going to San Francisco

Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair ~Scott McKenzie

I think these are daisies or she loves me she loves me nots. A woman's prerogative...so I'm told.

Daisy, Daisy,

Give me your answer do!

I'm half crazy,

All for the love of you! ~Harry Dacre

A whole bunch of flowers from a different angle.
It really wasn't that bad, but the Bixby Gal got spooked on a recent boat ride riding on white caps. She put on a life vest and hung on for dear life...er Barb. Sure we got a little wet. So wet, it's summer.
A flock of waterfowl.
I'm livin' free and tryin' hard, and ridin' high. Yippee ki yay.

“There is an eagle in me that wants to soar, and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud”. ~Carl Sandburg

Artisan the eye of the beeve holder. Gaea, notorius Gaea, the second most photographed statue in Bemidji. So Deborah Davis couldn't get away with this, but a 50's family-oriented sit-com got away with the lead character's name?

"Sometimes things get so messed up, crying is the only thing you can do." ~Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver
The Pipes are Callin'. Duckman and Bear Kelly take turns singing Irish ballads at Bridgid's Cross Irish Pub.
The sly ole Bear get's ready to pounce on the dis-text-racted Italian Duck
These two are too much alike. They have somehow found that they "independently" own the same red jackets. See the Duet of the Double Duplet Pair in the May Lazy Boy. http://makakii.blogspot.com/2010/05/duet-of-double-duplet-print-pair.html

“The sixties were when hallucinogenic drugs were really, really big. And I don't think it's a coincidence that we had the type of shows we had then, like The Flying Nun.” ~Ellen DeGeneres

“Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.” ~Auric Goldfinge

Cruisin' Down the River

So, when one owns a pontoon you need to take it out every time you get a chance. It's expensive to own a boat, and a fair amount of work. But why live on water if you don't have a boat? It's pretty. Sure. But all your friends say, "you live on the river and you don't own a boat?" Well, I get tired of hearing that.

My eldest daughter sent me a nautical cap for Father's Day, and at the risk of damaging my image of deep humility, I do believe I AM officer material, at least I look it. Let me know what you think. In fairness, I suspect there's a couple of old buck sergeants in Hawai'i, Korea and Washington state who would beg to differ...I'm sure.

It's the usual cast of characters, me and B along with the Bear and Galifornia, plus the Bixby Gals. We have access to three or four lakes and about five miles of river. We head down river towards the Power Dam. Actually we go north for awhile, as the Mississippi at this point flows north before it heads south toward the Big Easy about two miles north of here. Well, actually it meanders all over the place. It's not for the directionally challenged, that's for sure. Long story why. Bemidji State Park has a nice pontoon cruise and the park naturalist will explain it all, the Itasca Moraine and the whole shebang. It was a great day for a lazy ride.

It's never too late to have a happy childhood. In fact, that's why I got our boat in the first place!

"There's no other love like the love for a brother. There's no other love like the love from a brother." ~Astrid Alauda

Regal-ness in a backdrop of blue and green. The river at this point is wide forming something they call Stump Lake. I'm stumped as to why they call it that, maybe they couldn't think of a name.
Barb takes a bough...in the side. Too close to the riverbank and a tree branches out to say hello. Nature is so alive. Some would say I'm a bad driver and make me surrender my cap.
Wind in their hair. The Bixby gals. The younger used to have longer hair than the elder, but that was when she was much younger. I'm younger than that now.
Okay, so I couldn't decide which photo I liked best, so I decided to include hairy neck and smiles.

Ol' man river,

Dat ol' man river

He mus'know sumpin'

But don't say nuthin',

He jes'keeps rollin'

He keeps on rollin' along. ~Jerome Kern

"One reason a dog can be such a comfort when you're feeling blue is that he doesn't try to find out why." ~Author Unknown
“No sadder sound salutes you than the clear, wild laughter of the loon.” ~Celia Thaxter

Great blue heron stands,

Motionless at river's edge;

Avian giant. ~Michael Meuers

"The wonder is that we can see these trees and not wonder more." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

The woods are full of faeries! The trees are all alive;

The river overflows with them, See how they dip and dive!

What funny little fellows! What dainty little dears!

They dance and leap, and prance and peep, And utter fairy cheers! ~Anonymous

"The trees reflected in the river -- they are unconscious

of a spiritual world so near to them. So are we." ~

Nathaniel Hawthorne

"Only in quiet waters do things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world." ~Hans Margolius
"A cat, after being scolded, goes about its business. A dog slinks off into a corner and pretends to be doing a serious self-reappraisal." ~Robert Brault,

"To the outside world we all grow old. But not to brothers and sisters. We know each other as we always were. We know each other's hearts. We share private family jokes. We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys. We live outside the touch of time." ~Clara Ortega

"Sometimes being a brother is even better than being a superhero." ~Marc Brown

Pigtails and Bush Whacker. Brown and Gray. Straight and Curly. 60's and 80's. Rural and Urban. But they're sidekicks, identical sidekicks, you might find.

Fire Brigade. The wide angle lens not wide enough to see that Ash has Zettie's left foot, who has Shelly's left foot, who has Barbie's left foot, who will soon have the Bear's left foot, who has my right foot as I catch a fish with my bare hands (and nearly fall overboard) proving the old Bing Crosby axiom, that although a fish is slippery...it still gets caught. Actually, I'm cleaning some sand from the motor, and the rest is over re-acting.

Moon River, wider than a mile

I'm crossing you in style some day

You dream maker

You heartbreaker

Wherever you're going

I'm going your way

Two drifters off to see the world

There's such a lot of world to see

We're after the same rainbow's end

Waitin' round the bend

My Huckleberry friend

Moon River and me ~Henry Mancini with lyricist Johnny Mercer.

Barb, always willing to show a young woman new things, shows Ashley how to tap her head and rub her belly at the same time. Ashley at first thinks it's silly...
But being the trooper she is, Ashley not only does the rub/pat expertly, but does it left handed, much to the delight and satisfaction of her tutor.
"Scratch a dog and you'll find a permanent job." ~Franklin P. Jones

I can hear the bullfrog callin' me.

Wonder if my rope's still hangin' to the tree.

Love to kick my feet 'way down the shallow water.

Shoefly, dragonfly, get back t'your mother.

Pick up a flat rock, skip it across Green River. ~John Fogerty

Cruising down the river on a Sunday afternoon

With one you love, the sun above, waiting for the moon

The old accordian playing a sentimental tune

Cruising down the river on a Sunday afternoon ~Eily Beadell, Nell Tollerton

We actually had a person in the boat who was born and raised in Bemidji, that's right, right here in Minnesota's Great North Woods, and she did not know that baby loons ride on the back of their parents. The little one swimming fell off the empty backed parent when we first approached. Thank goodness the little one knows how to float like a rubber duck...er loon.
Docking the boat is a major undertaking requiring two men, a woman and a Llasa Apso who has the bow rope in his mouth.
The day before, Barb and Rachelle and Ashley went to Walker to save money...jeesh. So Ash sees this skirt and loves it, but it is a little beyond her tight budget. Silly Barb returns to Walker the next morning to buy it for Ashley as a gift. Ashley is very pleased, and insists she model it immediately. She also wants me to let the reader know (that's you) that she would never wear this skirt with that top. I think it's great that girls are starting to wear skirts and dresses again. Yup, I am. I am. PostScript: Ashley doesn't know it, but we've kind of adopted her as a granddaughter as we wait for our next crop. Sigh, they grow up so fast.

My first and last mate.

Anishinaabekwe, the Daughter,

You are the keepers of the water.

I am Nibi…water…the sacred source,

The blood of Aki, Mother Earth,

The force filling dry seeds to great bursting.

I am the wombs cradle.

I purify.

Nibi, the life giver…

Forever the Circle’s charge

I have coursed through our Mother’s Veins.

Now hear my sorrow and my pain

In the river’s rush, the rain…

I am your grandchildren’s drink.

Listen, Daughters, always.

You are the keepers of the water.

Hear my cry,

For the springs flow darkly now

Through the heart of Aki ~American Indian, Ojibwe, Minnesota