The Belle in the Bay

We had a busy and thrilling time of it from the moment Ruth, Jewel and I arrived at the cottage late yesterday. Rain was falling in buckets, but of course we had to take our walk anyway. The brim on my straw hat is so broad and its weave so tight that the top of me doesn't get wet. I always wonder what the neighbours think, if they even notice me tramping about in showery weather. I'm impervious to rain. Must be genetic. If people in Britain and Ireland didn't walk their dogs in the wet, dogs would hardly ever get their exercise!

Jewel was enormously pleased with herself for flushing a mole in the verge. I pulled on her lead the instant I spotted the tiny flat scurrying bit of fur, so no harm to the mole--it vanished under a clump of fallen leaves.

Returning to the house, we went down to the dock to toss some worms to the fish. He swam up to catch each one, as usual.

Our local waters were busy. The mother duck and her nine ducklings, lots bigger than the last time I saw them, paddled past the dock. The loon was calling somewhere out in the Bay. The skies were busy, too--hummingbirds at the feeder. And, much to my joy, blue heron made a fly-over, low enough that it nearly grazed our flagpole! I think it was headed for the shallower waters of the cove every so slightly to the north.

After the rain stopped the air was moist and mist lay heavily over the mountains across the way. But the clouds thinned enough for the sun to peek through. I was keeping an eye on the sky, waiting for the sunset, when I heard the chug of a big boat, a crowd of people, and a couple of loud blasts from a horn.

I headed out to learn the source of the commotion--it was the Belle on a charter party cruise, pulling away from my dock and making a big swing round. It calls at all the before turning south. As it moves down the Bay, it calls at all the docks along the eastern shore.



I'd been regretting that we arrived to late to catch the Big White Boat on her Thursday voyages up and down the Bay. Sighting the Belle is a rare occurrence, and more than made up for what I'd missed.

A short while later I heard the music and laughter--and a couple of horn blasts--and captured the Belle making her way up the Bay. At sunset!



Saturday night is dinner cruise night on the Big White Boat. I'll be striving for a good shot of that. My current camera has all sorts of nifty settings for nighttime shoots.

Humid and hazy today, and hotter. I'm happier being here, plugging away on the manuscript, than in Unity, New Hampshire, this morning. But I'll probably tune in to watch the most exciting thing to happen there since--well, nobody seems to know!