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The Victoria GAZETTE |
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Lake Minnetonka beckons Friday afternoon, May 25th, and we answer the call. This June issue of the Gazette is practically finished and so I put away things on the desktop and let my computer screen go to sleep for the rest of the day. The sun is warm but the breeze over the water is cool so I keep my sweatshirt zipped. Blue sky is overtaken by a white haze of clouds but we don't mind. A helicopter whirs over the nearby shoreline for a brief moment and then continues mosquito spraying out of sight but not sound. A float plane gears up and takes a run across the bay for a successful liftoff, the little bugger making much more noise than the mosquito copter. A handful of sailboats skid slowly in the distance, to and fro, as though in practice for an upcoming regatta. An old paddle boat moves rather quickly, as though someone wound up its rubber band and then let it go. A large lady of the lake ship meanders majestically with a boatload of passengers, but they're too far away to wave at them or them at us. It's interesting that the famous Minnesota Nice also extends to Lake Minnetonka Nice, and so waves often join the waves. Tree frogs are singing their songs in chorus, their repertoire never changing. Much of nature sounds the same from one spring to the next and we welcome the familiarity, old and fresh at the same time. Ours isn't a fishing boat but Allan pulls into a quiet bay -- actually the whole lake is very quiet today -- and reaches for his fishing pole. He baits the hook, casts it carefully toward shore, and stands there as if that's all he's got to do in the whole world. In some ways, that's true. In reality there is much to do, but there's no pressure or timetable since his retirement in April. He pulls in a sunfish and I salivate at the thought of crispy fried filets for supper. It's about six feet deep there, he says. The lake is very calm, but Memorial Day Weekend is barely beginning so boat traffic is still at a bare minimum. We like it that way. Funny thing is, when boat traffic is high, I like it that way, too. Peaceful versus invigorating. Solitary versus social. Reflective versus impulsive. Opposites attract, dontchaknow. After a half hour or so, he dumps Mister Sunny back into the lake and puts away the rod 'n reel. There goes supper. No more salivating. We cruise at slower than cruising speed, creating no wake and we're not even in a no-wake zone. That tells you what kind of a day it is. We see and hear a middle-aged couple on shore teaching their puppy to retrieve and play in the water. My sweatshirt is still zipped and I remark at their hardiness since they're wearing shorts and knee-deep in the cold waters. We traverse a familiar tiny point of land jutting out into the lake with a gazebo at the end of it, all renovated and sharp for the season. The adjacent home has both lakefront and lakeback. Such pretty properties lie here. We see lawn service people manicuring some of them. I am elevated by the beautiful landscaping and yards. I've often said to our daughter Jenny that it is good to make our little corners of the word beautiful and pleasing to the eye. It may never compare to the Garden of Eden or the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum or the Keukenhof Gardens of Amsterdam or the Conservatory at Como, but it can be our own little piece of heaven on earth. My little piece is nestled among lakes, shade trees, Carver Park, and bike trails that take us to the Dairy Queen with our kids and grandkids, but we enjoy finding bits and pieces of heaven everywhere we go, especially on Lake Minnetonka. Allan moves into high gear to get back across the lake to where we started. Time to go home. The wake is wide and white and it seems as though we're flying across the smooth as glass surface. Soon I'll be waking up my computer screen and answering emails again. Hope there aren't too many of them. I try to accommodate last minute photos and ads and columns, but sometimes I simply can't because it's important to answer the call when Lake Minnetonka beckons. By the way, I'll have another batch of photos in Sue's Album for you in a couple days, including the fine celebration of my parents' 65th wedding anniversary. I did a story on them for their 40th, their 50th, and their 60th, so you might already know that their piece of heaven on earth is an acreage, since 1947, near Ghent, Minnesota, a land of fields and farms and family. |
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June 2012 |
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In-Town Auto Repair 952-443-2868 |
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942-443-2078 |
