Wilderness Blues- Ramblings from the Great Land

    When I woke up last Sunday, I was greeted with a fine layer of fog blanketing the town. I wasn't really surprised. The night before it was clear and cold out, and this time of year when that happens, if the moisture content in the air is sufficient, we end up with fog.  Of course we get fog at all times during the year, summer, spring, fall, and sometimes winter.  If the conditions are right it can set up, and oftentimes it can be a real pain. On Sunday the fog dissipated out over the bay, but looking back towards Ear Mountain it was so thick you could just about gather it in buckets. Because I was on the land and I didn't have any place that I needed to be, I kind of enjoyed it. When I'm out in the boat it's another story all together. Even though I have a GPS to let me know where I am, it doesn't tell me if I've got another boat in front of me. For that I need my radar. Unfortunately the radar crapped the bed last year. Of cour...

 I was coming back from the store or some such place a couple of days ago when the sun started to burn off the fog. I like to get pictures when that  happens, it gives the landscape a whole different perspective. Obviously it doesn't do any good to take pictures of the fog before the sun comes out- they would all look the same- kind of like a grey wool navy blanket. In the short time it took for me to get my camera from the house and return, the sun had already dissipated a good deal of what I was trying to capture. Nonetheless, I decided to get a few shots off before it was all gone. Being out on a boat when the fog sets in can be a bit unnerving. I recall one time, before I had a GPS to help guide me, I was in Cross Sound in thick fog. I think I already had the gear in the water before it set in. There were a number of boats in the area and all I had was an old radar that had a hood that you had to look through to see anything. About half the time it didn't work at all, and...

Here it is May 11 already, and I'm still waiting for some sign of spring. As you can see from the pictures of the trees, the leaves haven't arrived yet. Maybe they're on vacation someplace warmer. The snow is still pretty far down the mountain yet too. I try to placate myself by saying that it will provide more water if this is a dry summer. The only thing that even remotely gives the appearance of spring are the dandelions that are sprouting up. Oh joy! They're about as welcome as a fart at a debutante ball. They're tenatious little plants. They probably wait under the snow all winter for the sun to come out so they can pop out of the ground like a Jack-in the Box and yell "Surprize!" I was up early this morning like I am most mornings in the spring and summer. The combination of light streaming through the window at four AM  and those obnoxious ravens calling  make it hard to sleep. I usually  don't get out of bed just because I'm up though, but ...

Well, I've done it again. I had this post all done and was reading over it to correct any mistakes, when I made a mistake. I hit the wrong button and wiped out my previous post. I think I need a keyboard with keys the size of qauarters and a half inch space between them. Of course using the computer would be like playing the piano, the keyboard would stretch across the whole desk, but I bet I would make fewer mistakes and besides, I would kind of like to learn how to play the piano. This isn't what I really wanted to write about. I wanted to mention the fog we've been experiencing for about a week. The weather this February has been uncommonly warm, for which I am exceedingly grateful, as are the deer and other critters of the woods I'm sure. The down side, if you want to call it that, is that the fog sets in overnight and sometimes stays most of the day. It's fine if you don't have to leave the community for any reason or if you are in no rush to receive your...