Kayaking at Stonelick Lake

Saturday 9 September
After a somewhat gloomy morning, the afternoon tried to clear a bit, though never quite succeeded. However it was warm and dry and so we got out for a late afternoon paddle at Stonelick Lake. It will be our last for a while, since unfortunately Roger has to have more eye surgery early on Tuesday morning. When he had a follow up visit on our return from Norway and England last month, it revealed that the procedures he had done back in June did not heal satisfactorily, so now they have to do surgery. The specialist thinks the problem is partly hidden by his developing cataract, so they will remove that and repair the retina at the same time. This came as quite a blow, and Roger is dreading it, being very squeamish when it comes to eyes! So after Monday his activity will be curtailed again for a while. It’s not the paddling in itself that would be a problem, but rather the lifting involved, and the possibility, though unlikely when lake kayaking, of going in the water, and getting an infection in the eye as it heals.
The wildlife sightings were a little disappointing from a photography point of view. There were plenty of great blue herons and turtles as usual, quite a number of belted kingfishers in flight, but too quick to capture, and an egret, but few cormorants, and nothing more exciting. The purple flower shown in my thumbnail photo is Pickerelweed, an aquatic plant native to the American continent, growing in a variety of wetlands, including pool and lake margins, across an extremely large range from eastern Canada south to Argentina.
Step count: 4,960