What a great August here at Squam. Warm and sunny for days on end. Family and friends “lived” in the water, day in and day out.

But now:

Where did they all go? The cormorant, taking a moment to dry his wings, wants to know.

But I also want to know where the cormorant was all summer. Now he appears, like last year, always late summer.

The ducks that were jumping on my dock and waiting for Peaches to run down and clear them off all June and July: where are they now?

And the heron that comes and goes with no timing that I can predict… why?

Hunter and her friend Sarah went out to look for the eagle’s nest they remember on Potato Island and it wasn’t there. But we have seen eagles, swooping down over the lake. Potato Island is for sale, so perhaps the eagles changed that nest site.

I could look up the answers to my nature questions – the internet has so much quick information. But I prefer to witness and wonder.

I would say I have a similar attitude about my art. But the internet would be no help for that.

My dining room table is a mess. There’s only me now and I’m in that not-know space when I start a project and then wind sideways and regroup.

I guess I’d call this the season of puzzlement.

And Peaches? No comment. She’s had a good day, out walking with her labrador retriever friend, Abby.