I Positively Negotiated With the Wind!

Last Wednesday at Elkwater Lake in the Fire Rock campsite on the Alberta side of the Cypress Hills, I watched, willed and positively negotiated with nasty Wind to blow away as it wickedly created whitecaps on the lake.  I was dying to go kayaking, but Wind had other ideas.

I watched hour after hour as Wind played with the water and the trees and our hair and the birds. I gave Wind until 6:30 to do his tricks and have his fun, then I negotiated, then demanded that  he change his activities.  Finally, at 7:30, he cooperated and agreed that he was tired out and that us humans should have some fun time on the water too!

My son and I explored the icy water in places we had never been to before in my dad's larger fishing boat. We had the whole area to ourselves, while the boaters had the rest of the lake.

The sunlight was so beautiful dancing lowly on the still water, painting the cattails with yellow and the bushes and trees with orange.

Moon began to show his well rested head and encouraged tired Sun to rest her wary head behind the green Cypress Hills.  

Sun abiding to Moon's request, encouraged us to paddle as much as we could in a very short hour, as she settled down for another summer night's rest.  Sea creatures revealed their heads and reminded us that it was time to move on!

We journeyed as far as we could, only to hear a sudden noise in the bushes on the bank.  Suddenly a family of Canadian geese appeared and startled me. Within seconds of me getting out my iPhone to take a photo, and knowing the limitations of the clarity of zooming in with this camera, I steadied my kayak to take a shot and then presto, a young deer innocently and curiously scampered into the view.  Click, yes, what luck!  Not the clearest photo, Sun was settling directly behind the scene, but it was a really cool experience!  See the deer on the right saying, "Good evening"? 

We glided around, coasting to our favourite nearby places on the waterfront closest to our campsite before Sun totally went to bed, then decided it was best to head in for a campfire.   I had to take just one more shot! An angel appeared in the darkening sky as Sun poked her dreary head over her hilly bedside.

We sat by the campfire, glad and relieved that Wind had agreed to give us some time for some kayaking fun! We stumbled to bed, tired from our early morning visit with the horses in Maple Creek, hiking and fighting and positively negotiating with Wind, and hoping we would awaken to a peaceful wind free morning!