Hi, everyone!
We’ve continued to have nice weather on the weekends, so Grandma and Grandpa and I are spending a lot of time at the bay. We did have some big thunderstorms in town that brought down branches.
One of the branches fell right around my Peace rose friend, just as it was starting to bloom! I’m glad I made friends with the flower before it was completely open. The next night, something ate it! When we got out to the bay, a pair of pileated woodpeckers were checking out one of our maple trees for a new home. I remembered the pileated woodpecker that made a see-through hole in one of my tree friends in town. I was very happy when these birds moved on!
Smoke from the forest fires in the west has been drifting over us, so we’ve had some hazy sunsets. On Wednesday two weeks ago, there were low clouds that lit up right after the sun set. Two days later, we saw sunset and moon rise at the same time!
When we’re at the lighthouse watching sunset, we can see back toward the breach in Crescent Beach. It looked like something was closing the gap! So Saturday morning, Grandma took me up to the breach in the kayak to take a closer look. Charles Point still isn’t connected to the rest of Crescent Beach, but there’s a wall of rocks off shore to protect from big waves. The houses on either side of the breach have lost their surrounding land. Pieces of concrete from earlier breakwalls are sticking out of the water.
When we got back from kayaking, Grandma and I made the sour cream sour cherry pie we make every year when the sour cherries are in season. Thomas had a friend and his family coming for the afternoon and dinner, so it was a good time to have a special dessert! I like to help with baking, but Grandma won’t let me pit cherries. She says I’d end up with pink spots on my fur!
When Thomas’ guests arrived, there was a boat ride and tubing. After tubing, Thomas had to take a nap in the sun! I made a new friend who decided I still needed another nap!
Sunday afternoon, Grandma took me to explore Macyville Woods! We’ve been to lots of Genesee Land Trust areas, but this one was new to us. It’s also very close to Sodus Bay, so a good one to visit when we’re there. The trails are on a ridge that sticks out into a big area of wetland. There’s an observation platform at the far end of the trail, right at the edge of the ridge. I liked all the wild flowers we could see in the malt marsh!
Another loop of the trail goes back by the Macy Tree! That’s a two hundred year old maple! The maples at our place are about one hundred years old, but the Macy Tree is much bigger! I made friends with it by sitting at the base, because it was too big to hug hello! There were super-mushrooms all around the base!
My Sunday adventure wasn’t over! There was a person riding a hydrofoil when we went to the Point for sunset. He was zipping along above the water, just like the America’s Cup boats we saw in Barcelona. The sunset was particularly smoky! Grandma’s camera doesn’t capture that well, but the sun was the same color as the reflection on the water.
When Grandma goes kayaking, she sometimes is weeding the bay. Water chestnuts are an invasive plant that can easily take over all the water surface! Pulling them up is muddy and messy, so Grandma doesn’t take me along when she’s clearing them out. The bay preservation association, Save Our Sodus, asked Grandma to let them know where the biggest concentrations of water chestnuts were. Since she was looking, but not weeding, she let me come along. We checked out Second Creek by powerboat, because that’s a long paddle in the kayak. After looking at all the ugly weeds, I was happy to see some rose mallows blooming!
After we checked out the rest of the shoreline by kayak, I helped Grandma mark a map of the bay with water chestnut locations. Then we went to Bay Day to hand in the map and talk to the Healthy Water committee chair. I visited the animal discovery tent while we were there!
Love,
Lion-san