Earth Image Photography, Nature Photography, My Summer Office

5:45 p.m.-

Pulled up at Grand Sandbanks. We've both been in for a good long swim--EZ jumped out and accosted a cluster of chest-deep water bugs the instant the boat bottom scraped shore. I tried changing into swim trunks under the overhanging pine, but mosquitoes gave me a fit and too many bites so I moved the boat downstream into the sun; changed there, and dove into the deep. Another humid 92-degree day--Damnit! Another two bug bites.

6:24-

Had to get out of there, now anchored in Melodious Meadow, the name I've given to the wide wild rice beds near the boat landing. Sitting on a nice sunny afternoon trying to get a little work done, minding my own business, I was bitten cruelly on bare feet by invisible mosquitoes. Except two: one tormentor got a good dose of venom into one of my toes before being squashed. Another got a good dose of me into him before I saw his bloated self struggling away, gagging, over the water.

I dressed and, tying my shoes, sensed a slight easing of the sun's heat. Grayness was erasing the sun; hard to tell what festivities it was dragging along. So, a fast retreat downriver to park near the car. No mosquitoes, only one pesky fly, which I've been chasing to no verdict with the fly swatter. The sun is gone behind a smudgy dark haze.

Momma Marigold has eight inch-and-a-half flowers. Baby, now about the same ten-inch height, has one bud ready to blossom.