On a recent weekend David and I had time to play a little with clay in the studio. The weather was beautiful. The doors and windows of the studio were open and it was very pleasant sitting there, looking out at the lake, hearing the birds and Canada geese tweeting, chirping, and honking. We ended up by taking our supper down there and having an inside studio picnic. David had grilled some shrimp and we had that and a salad.
A couple days later, it was a very windy day here, but beautiful, with comfortable temperatures. Some of the trees in our yard were blooming. As I looked out the window I saw that the pontoon boat was about to break its leash because of the wind, and escape!! The back of the boat had come loose and had been blown far away from the dock. The front was still secured but the rope was stretched to its limit. So I ran down there with the extra dog leash, pulled the boat back to the dock, and with a fancy-dog-leash-sailor’s-knot, got it tied up. Another good thing about retirement, I can be at home playing in clay and I can take care of things like the pontoon boat trying to get loose and run away.
Wednesday was another good day for working in the studio. And as many of you know, having your hands in clay is wonderful. It was a productive day. Again beautiful weather. As I was sitting there working I was delighted with all the sounds of nature. I enjoy naming all the things I can hear while quietly working in clay.
Since we are on the top end of the lake, there is not much “water toy” noise, like jet skies or heavy boat traffic. Sometimes, we hear a fishing boat or pontoon putt-putting along. Also, being in the quiet country locale here on the top end, there is a great quantity of water fowl that hang around. Wonderful to hear them and watch them go about their daily lives on or near the water. So while I was working with the clay, I could hear many kinds of birds that were at the bird feeder, in the yard and on the lake. Often I could hear the plop of a fish jump. Also could hear the farm animals on nearby farms. No farms that we can see from here, too many trees, but there are farms close enough to us that we hear some of the louder animal noises like the cows. Having moved here from the big city of Atlanta, it is amazing to hear, in a matter of a few minutes, bird noises, fish jump, and cows mooing.
All at once I heard a loud noise that was out of the ordinary. Couldn’t place it at first. It sounded like the creature was in earnest with his HEE HAW!, HEE HAW! HEE HAW! HEE HAW! Hee Haw!, hee haw, hee haw. Oh my! I realized that it was a mule or a donkey. That certainly made me chuckle. How often has this city girl had the opportunity to sit by the lake, hands in clay, listening to and enjoying the sounds of nature, including the loud noise of a mule. Yes, along with the birds, ducks, geese, blue herron, egrets, cows, occasional dog, I got the rare chance to enjoy the braying of a MULE!
Sweet life in the country.
