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.)   

Nigh Noon on Nippenicket

Loaded up Musketaquid (skin-on-frame kayak) and Guppy (possible name of tiny new plastic kayak) for a couple of hours on favorite nearby pond.  First time paddling in weeks.  Left shore elevenish.  No agenda.  I said, "I'll follow you."  Son said, "no, I'll follow you."  So we followed each other vaguely in the direction of the far end of the mile-long pond, making discoveries as we went.  

 

Red-winged blackbird repeating unfamiliar call 

that kept me guessinguntil I got a clear look at him.

 

Nippenicket's shoals and islands make it more interesting.

 A tiny "cove" has white waterlily (Nymphaea odorata) and pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata)

in the foreground, while royal fern (Osmunda regalis center left) peeks from the shadows ashore.

 

Stephen among the water shield (Brassenia shreberi),

easily identified by shield-shaped leaves with leaf stems in the center.

  Scattered white flowers at the surface announce the flowering of the underwater plant fanwort

(Cabomba caroliniana) with its finely-divided, dichotomously branching leaves.

Herbivores busy everywhere, but the white water lily leaves first got my attention by the uniformity of the holes, then focused it when I saw that the holes were being cut out as if with scissors!  No idea by what.

 

 Perfect weather: enough cloud to make sky interesting, 

enough wind to keep us cool without making paddling difficult.

The whole northern end of the pond is choked with water milfoil (Myriophyllum)--another alien invasive--and we passed up a closer look at a marsh to get ourselves disentangled.  

Ashore later at the Harry C. Darling Wildlife Management Area, we stretched our legs and poked around.

 Musketaquid ably bears my weight in its 12 foot length,

while 8-foot Guppy rides high with Stephen.

Pickerelweed up close.  (I tried without success to catch a visiting bumblebee in the photo.)

Alder (Alnus), with its double-toothed leaves and fruit ("cones");

below are last year's cones, long ago opened but still hanging around.

Sweetpepperbush (Clethra alnifolia)--a very common shrub of wet places--in flower.

The toothed leaves are wider toward the tips.  The dried fruit will look a bit like peppercorns. 

On the way back to the launch area, we stopped at a little islet we'd never been to. 

 View looking westward.

Purple loosestrife, an alien invasive.

Looking south toward the launch ramp a quarter-mile away.

We raced informally back to the launch.  Stephen's smaller boat's lower wetted surface (friction) and lighter weight was trumped by my boat's longer waterline (higher top speed) and stronger arms.  --not to mention that winning meant more to me (an official Old Guy) than him.  So I beat him handily.  We were back on the road before 2pm.