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  “The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” Eleanor Roosevelt Click to order: https://jocasseelaketours.com/gift-certificates/

Kay Wade

Vacation, week 2‍ Two weeks. In the grand scheme of things, closing shop for two weeks doesn’t sound like much, but it has been enough. Enough time to listen to leaves crunching underfoot on long walks, to the song of streams swollen by recent welcome rain, to the call of owls in the night. Enough…

Sheryl White

The last week in November each year signals a transition for the JLT crew. As we head into the cooler season, we take a couple of well-deserved weeks to rest before gearing back up for the coming year. Our resident common loons are arriving now, just in time to celebrate the holidays with us, and…

Kay Wade

Squirrel, birds, dog‍ It’s Saturday Happy Hour at the bird food bar, and all our feathered friends are here. The bouncer is a gray squirrel watching placidly from the banister, front feet tucked demurely against his chest, tail flexed across his back like a blanket. The birds behave, take turns, flutter in, pick a seed,…

Brooks Wade

JOCASSEE WINTERBIRDS REPORT. The Boney’s have arrived! That’s what we gull loving bird nuts call the magnificent Bonaparte’s gulls, the smallest, most agile and acrobatic gull we see in our part of the world. They are the harbinger of fall and spring winterbird migration here. They come and go with the loons, every year….

Kay Wade

Swinging from a star…‍ ‍For my husband to pull me out of the warm and cozy house on a cold and cloudy morning just past daybreak, it better be good. It is. I spy the leaf as the car rolls towards the boat ramp. A single bright yellow maple leaf is suspended in mid-air, nothing…

Sheryl White

One morning this week, draped in ponchos and snuggled under blankets, we left the dock under a ceiling of dark, moisture-laden clouds, misting rain and air temps hovering in the 50’s. After introductions and questions of expectations for the day, one man in particular said he was hoping to see a bald eagle. 20 minutes…

Kay Wade

Misty morning‍ ‍Thursday, finally, a soaking rain falls, enough rain to give Jocassee Valley a deep, quenching drink. Through the night it rains, dimming the light of a nearly full moon, softening ground, rinsing dust. Friday morning’s sun rises into fog and fine mist, moisture that suspends like shining beads along a spider’s web. On…

Brooks Wade

JOCASSEE WINTERBIRDS REPORT I heard loons this morning, under a fine late fall sky. First a long, lonely wail at daybreak, coming from the Bootleg ramp area of the big water, then several hoots of loons gathering together, likely preceding a period of morning feeding. Yesterday morning I heard, ever so faintly, loons calling from…

Kay Wade

Aphercotropism‍ Do we embrace an obstacle, or try to break it apart? Consider the delicate growing tip of a tree root, which might go either way. A dusty old nineteenth century word describes the process of growing away from, or around, a barrier. Aphercotropism is a mouthful of a word. A root feels its way…

Brooks Wade

JOCASSEE WINTERBIRDS REPORT: Happy November, everyone, the month in which Jocassee begins its transformation into a sanctuary for many varies of migratory waterbirds that call Jocassee home in winter. The star of the show is the common loon, of course, that spectacular, charismatic bird that leaves its breeding lakes in the upper Mid-West this time…

Sheryl White

  So long October, hello November! What a great way to end the warm season. The weather was amazing for the last kayak tour of the year. The lake was smooth as glass, creating mirror images of the colorful trees. A few Sulphur butterflies were still fluttering about and the air temperature was perfect for…