Isolation Antidotes (51): River Run Remembered

As our second lockdown here in Auckland continues (at Level 3 for at least another five days, and very probably longer), we are very grateful to be here where things are much less uncertain than in so many other places in the world. As I’ve mentioned before, we traditionally spend the three or four Northern Hemisphere summer months at our cabin in northern Minnesota, and this is the first time in nearly 40 years that we are unable to do that. But we think about it a lot, and there are numerous aspects of being there that we are missing, among them swimming, fishing, and canoeing. One of the traditions that we try to uphold at least once each year is canoeing across the lake to the river that flows out from it and then on down the river to the second bridge. Along the way it passes through some wonderful stands of cattails and wild rice, and there are always birds aplenty. Red-winged blackbirds are the most common ones, but also various kinds of ducks and the occasional bald eagle and our favorite, the great blue heron. While revisiting our memories there with the help of my photo archives, I came across my record of this brief encounter that we enjoyed a little more than 13 years ago. The heron stood like a statue as we came around a bend and stayed there quite a bit longer than we had expected, as we drifted silently along with the gentle current, and then took graceful flight further on downstream. This is one of my fondest memories and is, I think, very appropriate for my 800th post.