Ah, hope springs eternal! The names listed for our outing swelled during the week, including MeetUp pals. But when it came to the day and time, we were hanging with ‘bated breath waiting for Lisa McM’s friend, Kerrie Q’s arrival, to make our colorful boat parade a little larger.
Lisa has kept her town membership, but she had actually moved to Portland, TX and has just now returned, and paddling with Kerrie, her former and now current-again work-mate. Their laughter echoed across the lake, a nice background sound to our outing. The lake was calm, and only on our return did the breeze pick up. No whitecaps this time.
The new recruit at the dock needed to be educated as to Dawn K’s venerability in Kayaking Circles, which should have been perfectly apparent to him. Not only was she wearing an appropriate, attractive, and wonderfully female life jacket, but she was also sporting a stunning knife of many uses, hinting at more challenging routes than our usual flat water. We all took turns guessing which of the houses on the cliff was her Rollingwood residence,she declined to say.
We kept watching for the secretive herons who can often be found along the leafy shore along the lake in the direction of Redbud Island, and if we’d had someone knowledgeable with us we would know if that glimpse was really a green heron. Further along, in the nesting ground up by the outfall of the Tom Miller Dam, we were treated to a great blue heron leaving the trees with their characteristic honk. Observing carefully along the north shore of the lake, Maria V. may have spotted a ringtail, long gone by the time we thought to go back and look for ourselves.
Birdy highlight of the trip was a duck who paddled from halfway across the lake, directly toward Kerrie. “Well, I have an apple,” she confessed, and handed it over while his friends gathered around, too. How did he know? Thanks to Lisa for the photo, available after the usual (unscheduled) trip to the Genius Bar.
Supper at Maudie’s included only Maria and me, so we were able to give ourselves over entirely to real estate; her development plans wonderfully more inspirational than my coastal repairs; the usual TOWN good company.
Our next outing will be on the 4th Wednesday of June, the 27th, so mark your calendars!