Morning is the best paddling time on a warm summer day

I will put on sunscreen and my Indiana Jones hat and carry water if I must, but I’d rather not be hot, thank you.  So I loaded the boats onto the car the night before, and my son and I made a leisurely departure for “Lake” Nippenicket just after 8am.  I had no particular goal except to see what nature was up to, so we didn’t go far.  I spent more time drifting, looking, picture-taking, than paddling.  And that was good. 

 The vaguely willow-like plant growing in thickets near shore 

is water "willow" (Decodon verticillatus)

Here is water willow in flower.

 The prettiest and sweetest-smelling of the two water lilies common around here 

is the white one, Nymphea odorata.  The tiny midge-like insects are so small 

I doubt they are pollinators.

 

This delicately beautiful flower is a kind of fringed loosestrife, Lysimachia hybrida. 

Notice the fringes on the edge of the petals, the central one longest. 

 I'm not sure of this fern.  It has a leaf a lot like cinnamon fern but smaller and softer.

 The purple loosestrife is pollinated 

by both bumblebees and honeybees.

Pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata) is a graceful plant 

that cannot easily be mistaken for anything else.

Buttonbush, Cephalanthus occidentalis.

 Climbing over the tops of the buttonbush is a vine that turns out to belong the the aster family: climbing hempweed (Mikania scandens)--no relation to hemp/cannabis.

After an hour or so it was time to head back to the ramp: I had projects to do.  We made a race of it, and of course the Old Man won.  (I had something to prove, you see.)