Today it's time to take a break from hiking and nature study to return to a small pond that Ken and I love. As I've observed, there are two major groups of paddlers: destination paddlers (the ones who feel the need to travel from Point A to Point B) and the dawdling paddlers. Ken and I usually behave as the latter variety. Most times we love to go to a place that's quiet, wild (no houses dotting the shoreline), and full of wildlife. I just sit, often in one place, and study the dragonflies, my dragonfly book in hand. I soak in the sun, ears acutely tuned to bird songs, and observe everything around me. It's absolutely the most relaxing pastime I've ever encountered.


I sometimes sit back in my Hornbeck boat (Lost Pond boat is its actual name) and read a book. This past September I read a book in Dragonfly Cove on Minerva Lake that transformed me and made me know I had to live in the North Country. I'm sure I must have mentioned the book last year, but for new readers, I read Bill McKibben's Wandering Home: A Long Walk across America's Most Hopeful Landscape, Vermont's Champlain Valley and New York's Adirondacks.