Reflections

Since, at Bream Lake, we exist on the water's edge or, when recreating in the lake, literally on top of it, we see a myriad of images mirrored in the water, constantly coming back to us , showing us who we are and how we live. The reflections are every where and vary according to the light, angle, and relative calmness of the water. Depending on the amount of light hitting the surface, the lake can appear dark, almost black, blue, green or even brown. If the surface is mirror smooth the reflected images are crystal clear and ultra-realistic. If the water is choppy it offers an impressionistic rendering of our world. It is always fascinating, and yet we tend to ignore these wonderful images, being so familiar and everyday. I was on our dock, sipping a late afternoon libation, my camera at my side, when I looked back at our house on the water's edge and saw this. The version of the image you see here is inverted, adding mystery to the already enchanting act of nature. Click on the image to get a better view.

Hitchcocks

This is a tee-shirt we purchased at Hitchcock's in Hawthorne. In Gainesville we shop at Mother Publix. In Hawthorne it's Hitchcock's. The moment we enter the store we are greeted by a female voice (via the P.A. system) saying "Welcome to Hitchcocks's. We are proud to say we have spareribs on sale for...." All in a wonderfully mellifluous southern twang that could only have been comitted to tape by a Hawthorne woman. We visit Hitchcock's at least two or three times during our usual four day visits to Bream Lake and we are never dissapointed. I think you can find the cheapest meat on the planet there: stomachs at $2.50 per pound. The only problem is we haven't had the stomach to try them.

Bess

One of the three ducks that regularly inhabit our little section of Bream Lake. It's name is Bess (I'm using "it" because it could be a male). Bess is named for Harry Truman's wife. The three ducks are named Harry, Bess and Margaret (Margaret, of course, for Harry's singer/novelist daughter). If you've been to Key West you will recognize the name from the Magaret Truman Laundrette (because it's located at the intersection of Margaret and Truman streets). The ducks are fed a ration of whole kernel corn each day we are at the lake and they seem to expect it to be there at the right time.

At Last!

This may not look very interesting to you, but the sight is heavenly for those citizens of the Four Lakes Community of which Bream Lake is a constituent. They have finally begun work on that tortuously bumpy strip of road extending from the Alachua County line into Putnam County, winding through the lakes area, and eventually emerging onto Gordon Chapel Road. This is something that has long been anticipated by most of the community and will certainly be appreciated by our poor automobiles and trucks, which have previously been lead to early retirements by the damage inflicted by this washtub thoughfare.

Camp Conner-Byres

Not much happens at Bream Lake that the rest of the world would find exciting. We ventured out to the lake house today to check on things: make sure the plants were watered, feed the ducks and shiners, and hang our new L.L. Bean Lake House sign. The only other event that is occurring is the beginning of the paving of the dirt road that leads to our lake house. In a previous blog I described the travails of traversing this thoroughfare. A journey down this catastrophy of a road will jolt your fillings and push the family car significantly closer to the "previously owned dealer". They , the county road people, are beginning to make signs like they are serious about smoothing our journey to Bream Lake. Let us pray. More on this later.

Moo looks

My wife and I make frequent trips to a farm near Bream Lake where we know we are welcome and we visit the various denizens inhabiting the several hundred acres. Among them are a miniature horse named Neigh, two full sized horses, two dingo-like dogs and many head of cattle. We feed the horses carrots and the dogs get dog biscuits. Alas, we do not feed the cattle. The reason is two fold: there are too many of them and, besides, they are already provided with plenty of grass and hay. We do feel enormous pangs of guilt, though, because the cattle always rush to the fence when we come and persist to give us the most baleful looks I have ever seen.

Full Moon over Bream

A full moon is particularly nice at Bream Lake. Our house is on the western shore and looking across at the eastern horizon at the moon rising is very nice.

Look to the Skies

I strolled out to the dock this morning and saw this in the sky. If you've been to London and seen The Eye, it should be familiar to you. It's come a long way!

Buzzards

They have returned: the buzzards, or, perhaps more properly, the vultures. Here they are, perching on the end of our dock at Bream Lake, trying their best to look like little wrens so we won't notice them and shoo them away. I have mixed feelings about these creatures: on the one hand I appreciate the job they do for us. They are nature's sanitation department. They scavenge for dead creatures , eat them, and clean up the countryside. This is good. They also congregate in large numbers and roost in trees near ones property, creating, as a group, the most God-awful stench imaginable. I guess they're like a jail house: necessary- but "not in my back yard". I think the plusses outweigh the minusses.

Eat your heart out Architectural Digest !

Our clothes dryer at the Lake Bream house went on the fritz and we purchased a new one. I think the old one looks rather nice on the porch. My wife has another opinion. What do you think?

October Days

The days are long, lazy and beautiful at Bream as we head towards Halloween. The hurricanes are not happening this season and, as a result, the heavy rains have not come. For the past several weeks it seems that no moisture has come and the lake is receding back towards the level it was when we first came to Bream. Our good neighbors for the last several years, the Rudds, have gone to live in Virginia, so we are awaiting new neighbors who expect to build a house next door. In the image you see here, Jerre is watching the shiners and minnows gather around her feet and vie with Ogden the turtle for the catfist pellets she throws into the water.We experienced a little excitement two days ago when we heard 4 gunshots being fired a few houses down. Nothing unusual in this pistol packin' community. Ah, well...

Jerre's Turtle

The turtles at Bream Lake are usually very shy creatures. From our house we can see them sunning, down on the dock, three sometimes four abreast. Always, when we approach them and try to get within 50 feet or so...they scatter. As of late, my wife Jerre has been going down to the dock early in the morning, at first to feed the fish with catfish pellets and to feed the ducks with corn. Imagine her surprise when a rather large turtle popped its head up and started taking the pellets. After some time the turtle was practically eating the pellets straight from Jerre's hand. This has become a daily routine, much to Jerre's- and the turtles- delight. Note in this image, the fish striking a pellet the moment it hits the water, causing a spattering of water.

Finding Nemo

These lads , tidying up around the dock, seemed to come accross a very interesting creature. Look closely.
Interesting things can be found in Bream

Crikey !

And who says Bream Lake isn't interesting ?

Edwin the Bold

My wife, Jerre, has a penchant for naming every creature with which she comes into contact. While she was sitting on the dock, feeding the fish with catfish pellets, early this morning, a particularly bold egret landed near her. Whether he was looking for his share of pellets or simply waiting for the feeding fish to emerge so that he could dine... who knows? At any rate the egret remained on the dock with Jerre for at least 15 minutes and eventually left. At that point Jerre pronounced that the curious fowl would henceforth be known as Edwin the Egret. So-be-it.

The Hawthorne Virgin

Jan Zuccarell sees the image burned on the screen of the cell phone as a sign from God.Her son, Ben Zuccarell, sees the image as a cash cow, and wants to sell the phone on eBay. It seems that a child in their family baked a cell phone in the microwave oven and this is what came out on the screen of the cell phone. I think that it looks more like the Grim Reaper. Miraculous things can happen, even in our small little community on the edge of Bream Lake.

The Unimportance of Being Ernesto

Waiting for Ernesto. Nothing there.

Noodling

It is a beautiful day on Bream and great for going about 100 yards out into the lake and "noodling"- that is to say riding astride a styrofoam-like flotation device which is shaped like a giant piece of pasta and spending the better part of an hour gazing up at the sky and hoping a gator d0esn't come along and chomp down on you - or your noodle. No gators today, but just before I took this picture of my wife she had let out a whoop and declared that something had "bit" her. More than likely that something was either a hungry bass nipping at the bright yellow floating ends of her bikini straps or a curious and quite benign turtle. Such are the thrills of noodling in Bream on a lazy August day.

Full Moon at Bream

We had a full moon at Bream the other night (as did most everyone else across America) and it was magnificent. I wandered out on our neighbor's dock just before midnight and captured this image, via time exposure. There was, however, another event going on at the time that was more spectacular than the lunar glow, and that was the sounds coming from Bream: the frogs were in full chorus- from the smaller ones to the large bull frogs. They were so loud that they could have masked human conversation had someone been with me. On nights with a sliver of a moon or none at all, the frogs are much lower in decibels.

Lake Creature

Bream Lake is lovely. It's clean and clear. It's a perfect temperature for swimming during the summer. Bream Lake also contains things that can kill you if provoked. Our neighbor Rick shows us the rather large water mocassin that he dispatched yesterday. The serpent was swimming in an area that we normally use for wading.