And it all comes full circle

Four weeks past and wrapping up the course. Our students studying by the lake, half there in thought and half reflective, nostalgic in leaving. An impromptu triathlon against Katie in the afternoon. A bike race on beach cruisers through the woods along grapevine point, foot race through blissville, and dashing into the lake to swim to about 50 yards out to the dock. The only way I could convince Katie to brave the icy cold of the lake was to challenge her. So much fun and it worked!

Fiddle music drifting out on the lake before and after dinner. Brendan sawing away by the lakeside and later meeting my old friend Sharron, another great musician who was with us last spring. She is up to assistant teach the summer term, changing of the guard. TOO much fun last spring and she has been missed this year?Catching up beside the lakeside at dusk while she caressed the silence with the soulful moaning of her fiddle strings...

Proctoring the last exam late into the night. A room full of thoughtful silence. Katie and I didn?t wrap up until almost midnight, arriving back at the cabin to find a party! ?and a truly epic one at that. Everyone represented from students to professors crowded into a closet sized cabin, morel mushrooms sautéing on the woodstove, bottles of scotch doing the rounds, and a chorus of banjos and fiddles just audible over the loud din of conversation. It was a late, drunken, crazy night and a perfect ending. Full circle.

I snapped this shot beachcombing the lake near dusk. I thought it made an intriguing and unusual composition. The dead musky contrasted beside this half submerged old rope, briny plankton and snail shells littering the scene. The washed up flotsam and jetsom litter of the beach...