Dog Days of Summer

Adrian and I are back from a week long camping trip along the shore of Lake Superior. We went to Tettegouche State Park and camped at a lovely site overlooking the lake. From the campsite, a short steep path led down to our own private beach cove. The trees along the lake were still quite green, but some of the maple trees off the lake had already turned astonishing shades of red and orange. It was lovely, relaxing and a whole lot of fun hanging out in the woods. The breeze off the lake was a bit cold at times, but a warm fleece jacket, a hat and a campfire took care of most of the shivering. When we weren't hiking or hanging out on the rocky beach, I spent most of the time swinging in my hammock, which is the most comfortable hammock in the whole wide world. It's made out of parachute nylon and is by far the most relaxing place to be. It's pretty hard to be ambitious once you settle into the cocoon of joy, but I did spend some hammock time knitting and reading and working on a beading project in between naps. This was the view that I enjoyed while swinging in the breeze:
One warm day we took a hike to some lakes a few miles inland. The day was picture perfect, the sky that luscious color of blue you only see in the fall. We stopped at an old logging camp and I would have gone swimming if I was wearing fur like this crazy dog was. Her name is Summer and she is the beloved dog of my friend Cyndy. I call her dog Spazeline (rhymes with vaseline) because she's a spaz dog extraordinaire. As we rested from our hike, we watched Spazeline fling herself off of the dock in pursuit of a stick that Cyndy was throwing into the water. This crazy dog, despite her semi advanced years would play fetch for days if you let her. Once on a canoe trip down the Namekagon river I threw six pieces of wood into the water to see how many she'd pick up before she was swept down stream by the swift current. Much to my amusement, she got every single one of them. Then she climbed panting and exhausted out of the river, shook water all over me and dropped her sticks by my feet ready to play 'drown the dog' all over again. On this hiking trip, Spazeline entertained us with belly flops for a good half hour before she abandoned the dock in favor of the less vigorous shoreline entry. She would have frolicked for hours in the water, but my hammock was calling it's siren song from miles away so we coaxed the dog out of the water and trekked back to our campsite.