Soft Light, Serene Water

A warm quiet morning, low clouds, no wind. My friend Sue and I had a brief morning paddle on the Hudson, enjoying the silence and solitude and the beautiful reflections of mountains and rocks. After an hour or so, it started to pour, so we tucked our cameras under waterproof wraps and cut our adventures short. Luckily, I managed to get a few photos before the sky opened up.

Here's Sue approaching the rocky promontory we call Rippled Rocks Point.

And here are the rippled rocks.

The rocks are home to huge fishing spiders, some as big as two inches across or more. Today we came upon a recent hatch, with many quarter-sized young spiders scurrying across the face of the boulder we were paddling beneath. These could be the egg cases the spiderlings emerged from.

As I said, those spiders were scurrying, and as fast as their little legs would carry them, so most of my photos were just a blur. But I did get to stare down this one for long enough to get a shot. Here's lookin' at ya, kid!

Rounding Rippled Rocks Point, we entered a flooded marsh with a beautiful island in the middle. My name for this little piece of heaven is Three Pine Island. See why?

Along the edges of the marsh, the flowers were blooming abundantly. Here's purple Pickerelweed and rosy pink Swamp Milkweed.

Even the rocks had little garden patches of lovely blooms. There's Helenium here (yellow) and Boneset (white) and pink-leaved Marsh St. Johnswort, and if you look closely you might see the tiny blue bells of Blue Marsh Bellflower tucked in among sedges and ferns. Cardinal Flower reigns on the bank beyond.

Sue thought this arrangement was worth a photograph, too.

And I thought Sue was worth a photograph, as well. The whole arrangement put me in mind of a painting by Winslow Homer.