Nature has many pleasant sights to share with us

As I look ahead a couple of months in anticipation of spring and visiting our cabin once again, I feel that tingle of anticipation. I always look forward to my first visit of the season and anticipate what may lie ahead. I look at it as a rebirth of another season. Each season has its own distinct smell. Spring, for example, has a smell of flowers blooming, which signals the rebirth of another year and the arrival of summer.

As a kid, I anticipated the spring when the snow would melt and begin to run through the culverts at the end of the driveways on Bridge Street, down to “the Bridge” by the “crick” that ran under the bridge between Goose Lake and Fountain Lake. The smell of spring would be in the air and the air was heavy with the fresh smell that only spring can bring. Water would be running down to the ditch where it would eventually meet up with the crick which would be expanded by all of the runoff.

One spring my neighbor, Roger asked me to go with him and explore the slough in his duck boat. Now this was a good day for me because Roger was older and usually didn’t hang out with me unless nobody his age was around. We launched the duck boat in the swollen ditch water and headed towards the Bridge. Once there, we went under the bridge and headed towards Goose Lake.

It didn’t take long for me to figure out why Roger had wanted me to come along. The boat had a significant leak in it, so I got the honor of baling water while Roger paddled the boat. It was still fun, and we paddled quite a ways East of the Bridge before deciding enough was enough and turned back. We spotted red winged blackbird nests, and we even spotted some yellow winged blackbirds, which were more of a rarity, but not like today. The blackbirds would make nests on the cattails in the slough. I love it whenever I can see birds or critters up close in their natural environment; it makes me feel like I am getting a little glimpse of their world.

One time when I was fishing on Spider Lake with my grandson, Dylan, we were going through the narrows fairly close to shore when we spotted a wood duck in the water and then spotted the wood duck house on shore. It was then that a baby duck jumped out of the house, bounced once on the ground, and jumped into the water. We counted nine more ducklings following the first one. Once they were all out of the nest, they followed their mother and started swimming, single file, along the shoreline.

I figured that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to see that unfold. I didn’t have a phone or camera with me, but the vision of this will always be fresh in my mind, which is just as good as a photograph.

From spring to fall and all places in between, Mother Nature provides us with smells of the season. In summer it is the smell of freshly cut hay or grass in southern Minnesota. In the fall, it is the smell of fallen leaves after a fresh fall rain. Summer brings the scent of pine trees to northern Minnesota. I am not sure what the smell of winter is except for the smell of someone burning wood in a fireplace.

Until next time: When we were building the cabin and had it somewhat livable, my two eldest grandsons, Trevor and Taylor, would go with me in April to open up the cabin. It was pretty rustic at that time, but they wanted to go. I guess they were as excited as I was to get up there and spend some time. It took about two years before they figured out that it was a little too early to go up there. It was fun while it lasted.

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