what we have here is a failure to communicate

Fair weather has arrived here on Mount Desert Island, and I have been out enjoying it when I am not moving house or working. I went out in my little kayak yesterday for the first time, and although the ocean water was still a frigid 45 degrees, protected from the wind in my little cove I paddled around in the hot sun and was thoroughly happy.

I went out again today, and saw a bald eagle and some mergansers and a belted kingfisher, not to mention jellyfish! The water was full of Moon Jelly – Aurelia aurita – one of the more common jellyfish found along the Atlantic Coast. I have never seen jellyfish in the wild before, so I was completely fascinated. I kept my fingers and toes well inside my boat though!

I’m nearly done moving from my house in town out to my boyfriend’s cabin by Northeast Creek. It’s going to be so great to live there this summer! I can paddle up the creek or out to sea every day if I want to, and basking in the sun with a book will be a frequent activity. We have a fire pit out back in the woods, and we will be grilling and gardening and just in general enjoying ourselves.

I finished Night Flight by Antoine de Saint-Exupery while sitting in the sun and drinking a Bloody Mary yesterday morning. It was slightly odd to be so warm and in such brightness, while reading about airplane pilots caught in black storms in the middle of the night. The book was quietly sad, but very beautiful. It told briefly but vividly a tale of the brave men who piloted night mail planes from Patagonia, Chile, and Paraguay to Argentina in the early days of commercial aviation.

Saint-Exupery is so skilled at bringing to life a time and place, and really making you feel like you are right there experiencing it. I was sitting in my lawn chair, but the cockpit of a bi-plane seemed more real to me, and the wind whipping my hair seemed more likely to be that of the storm coming over the mountains than the sea breeze.

I love when a book transports you so well. I want to read Saint-Exupery’s Wind, Sand and Stars next. It relates an actual desert crash and survival adventure that he experienced, which led to the writing of The Little Prince.

So many books to read! I was just browsing through the blogs I read, picking up new recommendations and adding them to my TBR list like there was no tomorrow. Somehow the summery weather makes me feel like that’s true. I have endless sunny days ahead of me, lined up and just waiting to be filled with reading and kayaking and maybe the odd jellyfish!