Thursday, August 6, 2009

Once More to the Lake

As the end of the summer term approached, Jax and I stole one more afternoon to head up to the high lake. At the base of the hike, there’s a waterfall, and as you head on up, you periodically cross the streams that join up to feed the cascade far below you.

One of those streams comes out of Abbey Pond itself, and it’s home to dozens of Black-winged Damselflies like this one. Generally, I’m no good at identifying insects, and damselflies are particularly problematic. However, the Black-winged variety is easy, since it’s the only species with, well, black wings.

“Summertime, oh summertime, pattern of life indelible, the fade proof lake, the woods unshatterable, the pasture with the sweet fern and the juniper forever and ever, summer without end.”

              -E. B. White
                “Once More to the Lake”

We stopped off a few days later for one last romp through the mountain meadows before we went back to Connecticut for the fall. We were sad to leave behind the beauty of the places that welcomed us like home, but we were also overjoyed to reunite our little family and to visit the familiar Connecticut woods, meadows, lakes, and sofas that have treated us both so well.