THE KETTLE SINGS

Camping season always takes us back to our favourite park on the Kettle River. Last year was the first year after the devastating fire that burned wild and long in the area, but we camped anyway and walked through the burned out areas in the park, seeing odd remnants in the ashes and tree holes where once stately Ponderosa Pines stood.
We were back again this Father's Day weekend and I commented on what I could possibly take photos of, as I have many from past years. 
What a lovely surprise to step into a fresh landscape where nature has flourished once again, bringing a new beauty.

Father, son and grandson

CHANGING LANDSCAPE at KETTLE RIVER

The river runs wild and wide

along hillsides of charred trees

towering like matchsticks over verdant green meadows.

A fire does not silence the forest!

Songbirds carol, squirrels and chipmunks peep and chatter,

and crickets chirp in the depths of purple fireweed.

The breeze whispers renewal through tall waving grasses, 

 wildflowers bloom abundantly,

 as the Kettle sings to a changing landscape

marked with black totems telling their story.

Trudy Peters

2017

Pondering beside the river and jotting down poetic lines.
 This sweet granddaughter was just bubbling with rhyming verse all weekend.

Our 14 year old grandson entertained us on the bike track and with his cooking experiments. Would an egg cook better on a slab of slate or a melted metal sign pulled from the charred forest? 

Supper time brought out the best of his skills when he made six perfect Creme Brulees.

 Flowers rewrite soil, water, and sunshine into petal'd poetry. 

~Terri Guillemets,

My soul was filled with awe once again as I stopped to gaze at nature long enough 

for the ordinary to become extraordinary.