We had a line of thundershowers move through last evening again. There was a lot of lightning, but it seemed to be striking far from our place as we watched the rain fall out our windows. I don’t know how much rain we got, but at this point in the year every drop helps. The hills are remarkably green for September, but there are plenty of signs of drying. We’ve had quite a bit of dust and other things blowing around. People who don’t have many allergies are blowing their noses and rubbing their eyes. But everything smells wonderful this morning. A little water on the pine trees makes the world smell fresh.

I checked the weather on the Internet. The showers have moved off and there is no significant precipitation in the area right now. There is a scattered layer of clouds at about 12,000 feet and another layer at 4700 feet. It is that lower layer that could make my morning interesting. I’m going to head to the lake in a few minutes and Sheridan Lake sits at 4624 feet, which should make it very misty and ethereal at the lake.

I love the different moods of the lake, and one of the moods that I enjoy is when the mist is rising from the water and it is a bit like launching my boat into the fog. The difference, of course, is that I’m not launching my boat into a large ocean where I could easily become confused and lost. At the lake, I can simply paddle along a very familiar shore and know where I am at all times. But the mist and the fog change the way that distances look and they affect the behavior of the animals as well.

I don’t think that the ospreys enjoy fishing in the fog. They have wonderful vision, but I don’t think that they can see the fish through the fog. The fish are often rising in the fog, though I can’t see what they are finding. There don’t seem to be any insects flying over the surface of the water, but there must be something to attract the fish to the surface.

When it is foggy, the lake becomes very quiet. Even the geese, who are perpetual complainers and seems to be enamored at their ability to raise a ruckus, will quiet down and settle down when it is foggy. A lone duck may make his presence known if I paddle too closely, but usually he’ll just paddle away from me without making much noise. The shore birds are quieter in the fog as well. The red-winged and yellow-headed black birds that nest in the cattails normally raise plenty of noise, but they seem to respect the quiet of the morning as well.

The fog changes the colors that you see as well. Each drop of water suspended in the air serves as a prism. There is rarely enough light penetrating the fog in the early morning for there to be much of a rainbow effect, but at the surface of the water where I paddle my boat things appear to be a bit more blue and reds and yellows are a bit subdued.

They used to make fog lamps on cars with amber lenses, believing that somehow the amber light penetrated the fog better. But that isn’t really true. If anything, the amber lights worked a bit better because less of the light reflected back to the driver. The trick with fog lights is to have them pointing down at the road surface and not so far ahead. Less light reflects back into the driver’s eyes. But the angle of the light also means that you are not able to see as far down the road as when driving with regular lights. There’s no substitute for simply slowing down when driving in the fog.

My canoes and kayaks travel at slow speeds in the first place, so I have no fear of colliding with things as I paddle, even on a foggy day. I suppose that there is a small chance that someone in a motorboat would fail to see me, but I wear a bright paddling jacket and my life vest has reflector strips on it. And, frankly, the motor boaters don’t like to be out on Sheridan Lake in the fog, so I have the lake to myself.

Perhaps there is a hint of autumn in the air this morning. Its only about 55 degrees which is pleasant and normal. The warmer temperatures that we saw last week are really higher than typical for this time of year. And here in the hills we know that if it gets hot in September, there will be cool days to follow. We are unlikely to find ourselves in a lasting heat spell this late in the year. Our autumns are beautiful and we’ve got months of outdoor activities ahead of us, but there will be enough cool nights to remind us that summer is a fleeting season and change is on the wind.

Winter, however, is a long way off for us. Although we’ve certainly seen snow in October, that snow rarely lasts and the hills are great for melting off our autumn snows and rewarding us with more beautiful days. There are many years when we don’t see much snow before February. And the biggest snowfalls of the year are usually the spring blizzards when we get a full melt off between storms.

So today is a day to enjoy. The “to do” list is really long so I can’t linger at the lake, but there is time to stretch the muscles and explore the shoreline. And the hills are interesting enough that I could be surprised about the fog. Nothing is certain when it comes to our weather. There might be a patch of clear skies at the lake. I won’t know until I get there. It is the surprise that keeps me attracted to my morning paddle.

And this world is not short of ability to surprise me and fill me with wonder.

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