Happy Thoughts - Water

Happy Week continues with an ode to Water. Stop in at Lisa's for more things to love, and a blog roll of people sharing accounts of smiles and joy.

Roamin' on the Shores of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, WA

(gateway to the Pacific Ocean)

We love the water. It doesn't matter if it's the coast of Washington State, which is rocky and big and sometimes turbulent.....

...or the water of a calm bay.

I love to look for reflections, which extend the depth of a photograph. In calm water a reflection can trick your eyes, making you wonder where the horizon line really is.

Sometimes water can add drama to an otherwise benign photo of a house, a lodge, or a cabin. It can make you image what it would be like to live in such a place. A place where you can get up in the morning and take your coffee to the deck or porch to start your day quite spiritually. This is also true for the end of the day, when the sun's last rays dance across the sky and are reflected in the water's surface.

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Water also cuts through rock, creating a breathtaking landscape. Here is the Colorado River cutting a canyon through Yellowstone National Park. Dramatic and wonderous and powerful.

There are photographic subjects around the water, on the water, and in the water. I love to walk the shoreline and look for still lifes created by nature. They are more dramatic when created by big water...

...like this crab shell left behind on the rocky shore.

Lake Superior

And though we love to travel, and see the "big" water of the oceans, we also are blessed to have water surrounding us on three sides. The Great Lakes are beautiful, and writers have told tales of the water for many years. Sometimes it's tales of ship wrecks or ghosts or star-crossed lovers. There are many tales of the settling of the Great Lakes, and it's Indian heritage. One such a tale is that of Hiawatha, on the shores of Gitchee Gumee, Algonquin for "all powerful lake.".

The largest of the five Great Lakes, Lake Superior is the largest fresh water lake in the world by surface area, and 3rd largest by volume. Longfellow wrote The Song of Hiawatha, an epic poem centering around the life of Manabozho - a legendary trickster of the North and Northeast woodlands -set on the shores of this beautiful body of water. He changed this trickster's name to Hiawatha, however, because it sounded more "musical." The origianal Indian character was Ojibwa, a tribe native to northern Michigan and Wisconsin; Hiawatha was actually an Iriquois warrior. Longfellow didn't care - he was crafting a piece of historical fiction "purely in the realm of fancy."

Grand Island landscape, Lake Superior

To Start your day...here is an excerpt from this poem, and a salute to those who love the water as much as we do. Enjoy.

By the shores of Gitche Gumee,

By the shining Big-Sea-Water,

Stood the wigwam of Nokomis,

Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis.

Dark behind it rose the forest,

Rose the black and gloomy pine-trees,

Rose the firs with cones upon them;

Bright before it beat the water,

Beat the clear and sunny water,

Beat the shining Big-Sea-Water.

There the wrinkled old Nokomis

Nursed the little Hiawatha,

Rocked him in his linden cradle,

Bedded soft in moss and rushes.

Safely bound with reindeer sinews;

Stilled his fretful wail by saying,

"Hush! the Naked Bear will hear thee!"

Lulled him into slumber, singing,

"Ewa-yea! my little owlet!

Who is this, that lights the wigwam?

With his great eyes lights the wigwam?

Ewa-yea! my little owlet!"