Maiden Voyage

I cannot believe that it has been 13 months since I have blogged last! I guess I needed this gorgeous day to wake me out of my slumber! Although I very much appreciated the beauty of the day, it gave me an eerie feeling: today’s near-90 degree temperatures were strange enough, though it seems we’ve had quite a bit of strange and unusual weather: the least of which not being our exceptionally mild and dry winter. As a result, the water levels on Fish Creek (an outlet of Saratoga Lake) are lower than I have seen in all of my 30 years of living here!
As I sat in my kayak in Sucker Brook, an outlet of Fish Creek (usually, my favorite place to go when I am on the water, because it is so intimate and private, and where I have seen some very exciting ‘up close and personal’ looks at: muskrat, beaver, deer, mink, great blue herons, green herons, pileated woodpeckers, blue birds, sand cranes, and turtles; as well as a lovely variety of wild flowers; that it draws me back, day after day.) But today, the banks that normally are eye level, rose up above my head several feet. And when I came to the old train tressle bridge that crosses the brook (which has survived for over 100 years, when day trips to Saratoga Lake, from the city of Saratoga Springs, were all the rage for Victorian tourists) I could not go by, for there was not enough water for my kayak to pass. Last year at this time, I could not pass either, but for a very different reason: the water was too high – a difference of 6 feet!
At any rate, though most of the trees are still quite bare (except for the weeping willows which are mostly leafed-out) I saw many signs of spring, despite the low level of activity, and for that, I am grateful!