It’s hit 100 degrees here past several days. And no significant rain for over a month. Everything brown and dry. Worse elsewhere, but not good.
Good time to spend in the river.
Water Music
Day 4 ~ Watercolor Self-tutoring
Got to play some more yesterday. Had to throw away two to get here. Amazing how much you can lose the groove in a week.
This one is done with paint, graphite, and fountain pen. Again using cards and paper towels and some canning paraffin – things that didn’t come from the art supply store. I seem to get better results with unconventional materials.
Salt Marshes of Mathews
direct YouTube link: https://youtu.be/VJ306yMVaLs
A nice reprieve from the middle of winter. This is 20+ minutes of sites and sounds from the salt marshes of Mathews County, Virginia. A week on a remote barrier island in the Chesapeake Bay. Over the holidays I had time to go back and review it.
We spent a lot of time kayaking through the shallow winding creeks, often just drifting with the current.
It’s long, so give yourself some time, and good audio – much of this is just the natural sounds of birds and beaches.
The odd noises starting at 12:00 are Clapper Rails. They’re really shy, I’ve never seen one up close, but one stepped out of the grass for a closeup, not realizing we were standing above it on the dock.
Birds seen and/or heard in the video:
- Black Scoter
- Sandpiper
- Clapper Rail
- Hooded Merganser
- Boat-tailed Grackle
- Double-crested Cormorant
- Great Blue Heron
At night, there were Great Horned Owls, in the mornings Loons.
Crossing Over
The outboard on the skiff died, the one that ferries us over. Her father, the waterman, boat builder, sawmiller, got it running again.
“Go on over,” he said around a cigarette, “if you get stuck I’ll come get ya. “
She took our old friends across the marsh. I followed behind, paddling against the breeze that rattled through the sawgrass
Sunrise Paddle in October
A few weeks ago I posted photos from this little trip. I woke up before sunrise and couldn’t go back to sleep, so went for a paddle on Totier Creek.
There was steam rising off the water as the sun came up, a little chilly, but I had the whole place to myself. Just a glorious fall day. Leaves in peak color, glassy calm water, birds singing. So worth it.
Back up the creek I came across some Wood Ducks. They’re shy birds, and this was the first time I’ve seen one up close in the wild here. Even got a little video to prove it.
I could use a lot more of this, please.
Shore Life
Two if by Sea ~ Video
direct YouTube link: Melonseeds Off Urbanna
Short clips from the trip. I didn’t have the wind cover for the mic, so as not much natural audio this time, but enough to feel right. Doug provided the nice clip of me as we crossed tacks along the bluff below Rosegill.
You can see how lumpy it was when we first left the harbor. Lots of bucking into the wind until the tide turned.