Ahoy there, Boat Nerds! Last week Gitche Gumee was locked up for the winter, but do not fear, spring is not too far away. With spring the ice will melt and the lake boats will sail again. Come summer, when the lake ice is only a distant memory, what better way to commemorate the 2011 winter season than to clink a few cubes together in a glass of your favorite libation?  And what better cubes could there be than those that come from you very own, Ice-Cargo Ice Cube Tray? Thank you, Annie for forwarding this great link. I’m sure that the next time you make it to the Cabin; someone’s Ice-Cargo Tray will be there to cool your favorite beverage.

Rock ‘n roll is here to stay,
it will never die
It was meant to be that way,
though I don’t know why
I don’t care what people say,
rock ‘n roll is here to stay
by Sha Na Na

My rock, Anne, went back to work on Monday, worked Tuesday and is scheduled to work the rest of the week too. Monday evening, she gathered up all of her biohazard waste and performed garbage women duties and threw out the last of her cold. Tuesday, I walked before work, there being too much ice and snow for me to feel comfortable about going bicycling.  On my return lap a passing woman excitedly announced to me that she had just seen a fox. “It just stood there, right in front of me.” This chance encounter and the women’s excitement were still overshadowed, by last week’s announcement of photographic evidence of a mountain lion in Saint Louis County. The Missouri River makes a natural interstate for these lions to re-colonize the plains.

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood,
From Thy riven side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure,
Save me from its guilt and power.

Rocks, hard rocks, rough rocks, tidal rocks, rocks where the water meets the shore, they were there long before me and they will be there long after me too. The following photo is the other bookend to the photograph, Carmel Beach Silhouette featured in yesterday’s post. Rock outcroppings bookend Carmel’s sandy beach. Tide-pooling opportunities abound at low-tide. Christopher used high dynamic range photography to capture both the still brilliant and not yet set sun and the dark shadow clad rocks.