14 September - Lake Van Norden at dusk

(Float over picture and click to view slide show...)

The day's work done, I venture out at dusk to immerse myself in the quiet and the magic of the daily transition from daytime to night. There is a stirring in the underbrush as quail, and rabbit and other small rodents come out of their daytime cover and begin to forage. As I pad silently through the soft grass at the water's edge I can see them all as they peer back. The geese out on a rock island stir uneasily as they sense my presence - and in turn the birds rise in batches to check out the newcomer. The sky turns from blue to orange to gray to black and a light mist rises from the warm lake surface. The water's unrippled mirror reflects the first planets to light the sky and I realize too late I have not brought a flashlight, and I've lingered too long in the dusk trying to blend in and be accepted. I pack my things, bend my stiff knees and feel my way back towards home, through the high willows, over the silent dam overflow and back to the road. I wish I could convey the cool mountain air's brush on my cheek and the nightime sounds when the photos are displayed.