Happy Lake Logan Memories

Back in 2008, I was lucky enough to attend a weekend writers retreat at Lake Logan sponsored by WNC Woman magazine. What a fun time it was, and I still think about it often. I was recently going through some photos on my computer, trying to organize them a bit, and came across some from that weekend. 

The early morning view from the back porch of the cabin I stayed in. 

A shot of me, my friend Alessa (r) and her mom Linda.

 Have no idea what this is, but I like it.

 We met all kinds while we were there.

Lavinia Plonka and Sandi Tomlin-Sutker enjoying some canoe time.

And butterflies; the place was swarming with butterflies.

I met a lot of great women writers that weekend, and Alessa took me on my first ever canoe ride. We had workshops galore and some wonderful food (I even got the lodge's recipe for peanut soup...yummy). We worked, we played, we talked, we laughed. I loved it.

Mother Nature Is Weird and Wonderful

OK, all my life I have heard cicadas...I thought. Today was different. I heard a sound coming from the mountains around me this morning that sounded like one of those spaceships in the old B movies. It was weird, creepy and fascinating. I am told that is the sound of all those cicadas that have come up for their 17 year trek above ground. I tried to record it, but there were way too many ambient sounds. So, I searched the internet and found a site with recordings of what I heard this morning. (http://abbot.si.edu/highlight/cicadas/audio.htm) If you have never heard this sound, check this site out. The "Nearby Brood Din" is a perfect match to what I heard. This afternoon, the sound had stopped, so I am assuming it's a morning thing.

As a kid, I used to love finding the shed skins of these little creatures on trees and such. Creepy as the "bugs" themselves may sound to me, I still watch for those skins. From the sounds in the mountains this morning, I may find quite a few this year.

Check out my favorite porch-view shot from a recent writing retreat weekend at Lake Logan. The weekend was sponsored by WNC Woman magazine and was absolutely wonderful. The workshops were great and the setting was beautiful. Even without the workshops, this setting inspires creativity on its own.