Wild Rice

Today is lovely, just like in this photo. Selena took this one during the work party. One of the smaller wild rice paddies found in the middle of Boston Lake is visible in the center of the picture. The rice grows all along the shore and out on the sandbars. Every year we say we are going to try harvesting. Every year the ducks get it all. I don't really mind. The ducks and trumpeter swans and loons and Canadian geese call this lake home and I'm glad they find such abundant food here. I'd rather have their company then a pound or two of wild rice.

This is the bluff straight East of the back door. I love the sumac growing there. (very bottom of photo) The deer used to keep it mowed all those years we were building the house. When we finally moved in, though, they started to avoid the yard and Sally dog. Now I can enjoy the twisty umbrellas of flame crimson each fall.

The far shore is Katherine's old place. She was the most elegant elderly woman I have ever known. Selena and I used to mow her lawn for her in the summers and house sit once in a while. She would serve us lemonade and tell us stories about her treasures. We used to marvel at the opalescent polish on her perfect fingernails and the enormous jeweled rings she wore every day.

Katherine was from here; her family lived just up the road. Her husband had been from Chicago and she had lived there a long time. Her ancient log cabin on Boston Lake, with it's odd angles and added on rooms was were here heart resided.

Katherine's spirit touches the place still, I think- even though she passed away many years ago and the property has been sold. I suppose someone may develop it eventually. I remind myself to not be a pessimist and to have faith that God controls all "inevitability's" Maybe someday a dear neighbor that I have yet to meet will live just across the lake and we will enjoy paddling our row boats across the water for visits. I cannot tell the wonderful plans God has in store for me or for Katherine's precious land.

For now, while the far shore is still the domain of otters, and eagles and snapping turtles laying their eggs in the sandy bank, I love to look across the water and remember Katherine's kindnesses...her love for this place...her contentment with the solitude Boston Lake provided. And I do my best to let the wild things own my side of the lake too, so if her spirit ever visits over there, she will think her view is as beautiful as mine.