Wobbly-legged spotted fawns with big brown eyes.
Foxes, bears, elk, porcupines, and so many others. . . raising their young.
Undecipherable fragrances wafting on soft breezes.
The “smack” of your line as you hook into a lunker bass, musky, northern or walleye.
Brats and marshmallows toasting over a wood fire, the sparks painting the sky, and the smells enriching your soul.
Sunsets against a darkening azure horizon, in shades of red, pink, and purple that Titian could never match.
Billowing clouds as soft as marshmallows. Crackly thunder and lightning. Pelting warm rains.
Flowers and ferns, plants and trees. . . intermingling and entwining into perfect gardens.
Droves of forest where light filters through, spotlighting mushrooms and insects and things on its floor.
Diving loons. . . Soaring eagles and ospreys. . . And a thousand-million birds singing.
Tubing and boating. . . The laughter of kids on a sand beach. . . The snores of adults relaxing and smiling and forgetting every day cares.
Music and theatre and events and celebrations and history and pow-wows and parades and shopping. . . and dripping ice cream cones, and peanut brittle and fudge and lemonade and fish boils. . .
And wanting to come back again and again, because you’ve only scratched the surface. . .
That’s summer in northern Wisconsin and the Northwoods.
Come and be part of it all.
Kids, families, seniors, singles.
©2005, Creative Brilliance Associates. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without written permission.
[Image: Courtesy of Mike Crowley; available for sale at his website Life in the Northwoods]