That’ll Do

This morning my eyes opened just a bit before 6 o’clock. I laid in bed and listened. Although there wasn’t any wind and the water wasn’t stirring, I knew I was at the lake. Quantabacook makes a sound. It’s hard to describe. You have to be listening for it but its there, soft and distant. Part of it is the pulse of so much life in the deep woods that surround it and under the depths of the clear cold water. But the other part is the fact that all the competing sounds of civilization have been filtered out. When there are no muffled roars of air conditioning or car engines, even the buzz of electricity, you can hear everything else...finally.

It’s still cloudy. Some might say dreary. But as I write this sitting just inside the sliding door that leads out onto the deck, this is my view...

If it looks like I’m seven steps from the water, that’s because...I’m seven steps from the water. They won’t let you build cabins this close anymore. Thank God for the 1950’s. 

Pam woke up soon after me this morning. She is on vacation and there is nothing that my wife enjoys more than sleeping in. But not here. She never sleeps in unless its pouring down rain. I knew what she was up to the minute she appeared at my side. It was time for her morning kayak run.

She’ll be gone for an hour or so, gliding along, reacquainting herself with each camp, having conversations with all the loons that will follow her around the lake. Breakfast will have to wait. 

We have the next three days to ourselves. Weather doesn’t look great, but the forecast is for sunny skies and cooler temps starting Thursday which is the day when our friends arrive for a visit. They’ve never been to Maine before. Sharing this place with friends is for us like the anticipation of Christmas morning when we were kids! We never tire of showing friends our favorite places. We never tire of seeing the expressions on their faces when they see the lake for the first time.

So, three weeks of this will have to do me until next summer. Hopefully when we return in 2021 it will be to our own place where we will begin a new lifetime of memories.

When Pam returned from her kayak adventure I asked her what it was like. She showed me this picture she took just around the cove from our dock...

Yes. That’ll do.