Kayaker's Paradise: Raquette River & Simon Pond , Adirondacks, NY

I am in love. I could live on its banks and paddle the long lazy Raquette River everyday.. 'til the snow flew. Raquette River is a thirty mile meandering melody flowing from Long Lake to Tupper Lake, via Simon Pond, Raquette Pond and a stretch of marshland. Its flows so slowly one can paddlle either way w/out too much efftort. There is one 1.3 mile carry, around Raquette falls, at the Long Lake end.

Lobelia cardinalis in the shadows

Up close and personal.
A Hummingbird was seen feeding on one.

Blue Winged Teal were plentiful, and very tame

Pink Meadow Sweet
Spiraea latifolia

Grass Leaved Arrowhead
Sagittaria Graminea

A Greater Yellow Legs flew in briefly

Then there was the juvenile Great Blue Heron

Who up & flew away

A lovely ending to the day..

Raquette River flows into Simon Pond, then Raquette Pond and finally wends its way through marshes to Tupper Lake

Raquette Pond

Yellow Water Lily
Nymphaea mexicana
Can be a noxious weed out of its range

Fragrant Water Lily
Nymphaea odorata



Full moon over Simon  pond


What makes a river so restful to people is that it doesn't have any doubt—it is sure to get where it is going, and it doesn't want to go anywhere else. — (Hal Boyle)



Here Comes the Sun..Flowers

In the beginning was the sunflower..Floristan by name

I have been lucky this year, a pair of Goldfinches have been here since Spring, partaking of the Nyjer seed proffered, but they have been waiting for the sunflowers and Echinacea. If I work for awhile in the garden, they let me get quite near them on the feeder..but yellow-dart away if I try to approach when they are foraging among the flowers.



One morning tho', as the sun was beginning to rise above the tall pines surrounding my yard (Pinus Rigida..Long Island Pine Barren's native) I was not noticed on the deck above.

I had seen the seed hulls, now here was the culprit

Who? Me?

Is that the sun?

A few more seeds..

Time to head for the shade





Right here on the nearest Echinacea

These will be ripe in a few weeks..



 I will be the gladdest thing
Under the sun!
I will touch a hundred flowers
And not pick one. Edna St. Vincent Millay“Afternoon on a Hill”