Virginia A. Spiegel

Just back yesterday from the Boundary Waters on the Canadian/Minnesota Borders after another inspiration canoe wilderness camping trip with my sister, Nancy. We both thought this trip would be an easy paddle in, a set up on our favorite campsite on a small lake, and a week spent day tripping here and there.

But Mother Nature knows how to keep you humble and on your toes.  About two minutes after launching the canoe, I took this photo:

And then it really started to be interesting.  It was honestly the biggest and nastiest water I have ever paddled in for so long.  So finally we said, “That’s it” and beat back to a campsite we had visited before.  We were one lake short of where we hoped to be, but very happy to be safely ashore.

Engineer Nancy set up with this tarp wind break that was a great place to cook and be out of the roaring wind and rain:

And so we spent the week on that one campsite with plenty of time for naps, lovely meals, sketching and a daily photography challenge. And in every kind of weather we had coffee break in the afternoon; you know that made me happy:

We also had two sunny days that let us survey our big lake and see mink, eagles, beavers, loons, and more.  Sometimes life gives you just what you need.

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These maple seeds just turning pink were very interesting to me.  I photographed them again and again at different times of day and in different light:

My sister and I dubbed our latest Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness adventure “Lucky #15.”  Everything we needed came our way or we avoided potential trouble with seconds to spare.

Nancy portaging in the rain.

A beautiful trip despite some rain, wind, and cold.  Nancy and I shared so many moments of laughter, beauty, and adventure together.

Can you believe wool hat and gloves in June?  I’m treating our water with a UV SteriPen.

Some of the highlights included sharing our campsite overnight with a group of Boy Scouts and their Dads who were caught in a storm, seeing a bear on shore from our canoe, an up-close encounter with a mama moose and her calf, paddling nine miles in rain so hard that Nancy couldn’t see me in the front of the boat, and coming out on a power paddle ahead of big water and rain for which my paddling cadence was, One cup of coffee, two cups of coffee, … fifteen cups of coffee, switch.

I’m a foodie even in the Boundary Waters.  Real eggs scrambled with peppers, onions, and cheese with whole grain toast on the side. The view makes all BW food taste even better.

Cloudy evenings make for gorgeous sunsets reflecting in the water.

Of course, photos are always the best way to share the beauty and excitement of the Boundary Waters with you.  If you receive my e-newsletter, there will be more photos and news in the July issue being released soon.

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Photo by Nancy J. Spiegel Rosman

When I am in the Boundary Waters I try to keep my mind blank, but open.  A terrifically hard thing for me personally.  But art will out.  We were having “rock time” and I started pushing “stuff” around with a little stick.  The time floated by as the little stick worked its magic in finding and arranging things found on the rock.  I wonder what the next person who arrives on these campsite rocks will think of this found-object collage.

I’m always looking, looking, looking from the canoe, on the portage, and in camp.  Here are some of the themes I am, once again, contemplating with these new images as inspiration:

The juxtaposition of hard and soft; the timelessness of nature, the ephemeral nature of humans.

The beauty of decay, the cycling of all things in life from life to death.

The abundance of everything in nature, even spawn upon the shore.

The power of water; the mystery of reflection.

The Beginning of Pink

June’s Trip #13 to the Boundary Water Canoe Area Wilderness was pretty much a disaster, but it was compensated 1000 times over by this delightful journey.  We had an adventure-packed ten days of portaging, paddling, and appreciating nature.  Every other day we would “gear up” and paddle forth.  We portaged over 13.5 miles total, but were always done fairly early in the day.  The weather was phenomenal.  Our only disappointment was seeing only one moose (rut hadn’t started yet – very late), but he had only one antler!

Highlights included a concert from a pack of wolves camped out in our neighborhood and four beavers doing a ritual of some sort involving an all-nighter of tail slapping.  Of course, stunning as always were the eagles, the stars, the tall pines, and the strong teamwork of the Sister System required by the Boundary Waters.

That Sinking Feeling
Photo by Nancy J. Spiegel Rosma

One of our great adventures was beaver dams!  (I am not even going to start on impassable rapids with no portages and very little water – another whole story.) We would run the boat up as close as possible and I would jump out.  Sounds easy.  But you are climbing up/standing on a shifting mass of sticks – - some dried and easily broken, some loose, some firmly wedged in mud.  The water rushes between and over your feet and in the back of your mind in this little false alert going off, “I’m sinking, I’m sinking.”

Sister Nancy would jump out, we would take out one pack and lay it on the dam and then heave Beauty, our 17.5 foot Kevlar canoe, with the other two 50 lb. packs over the mass of sticks. Nancy would fling the pack back in and then take the fully-loaded boat out, swing it around and I would jump in.  Off to the next one.  Of course, coming back with the current was a different story (and actually easier).  The photo is the from the first and smallest dam (we did 3 out and 3 back) which compensated by being built on boot-sucking mud.

More later this week on things that inspired me on this journey, but here is one of the huge variety of mushrooms we photographed :

Pedestal

I bet you have been wondering what I have been doing lately.  I have been focused on FOUR, and only four, things:

1.  Stitch until I can stitch no more

I am putting so much stitching on my three new big pieces that I actually had to learn to run the foot control with either foot to give myself a break.  I’m thread crazed at the moment.  I’m working in a total junkyard since I moved to Studio B while we are having some work done on the back of the house by Studio A.  I will say that cramped and cluttered don’t seem to bother me when I am under a deadline.

2.  Curating Sightlines Invitational for SAQA

What a joy !  I have spent hours upon hours visiting website and blogs of the 166 artists who sent in Requests For Consideration for this Studio Art Quilt Associate’s exhibit.  I have studied every artist’s materials four times already; the invited artists will be announced August 31.  This innovative exhibit will feature 14 invited artists who will create five to eight artworks on the theme of their choice. There are specific specs for some of the artworks, but each artist will have a ten foot wide by 7 foot high panel for his/her artwork. It is an innovative concept inspired by this exhibition by tACTile, an Australian group of textile artists.

The exhibition premiers at International Quilt Festival in Houston in 2011 and travels to the International Quilt Festivals in Chicago and Long Beach. A Sense of Direction: Sightlines will also be available for travel.

3.  Prepping for the Boundary Waters

Trip fourteen and it still takes some thinking to squish everything my sister and I need into three fifty-pound packs.  I am spending a fair amount of time prepping and drying all our veggies.  Then I will package all our meals.  A labor of love as you can buy stuff to eat, but, hey, I like to know what I’m eating.  Plus in the Boundary Waters you can eat whatever you want because it’s paddle, portage, paddle, portage.  So my general plan is healthy stuff followed by chocolate, chocolate, chocolate. I’m only partially kidding about that.

4.  Getting in shape for the Boundary Waters

Three fifty-pound packs.  Two of those have my name on them (literally, as I have all the straps just the way I like them) as Nancy carries the canoe over on the first trip.  Since I broke my sternum I need to train more seriously as it takes FOREVER for all those muscles and whatever else pinged off to become strong.  It is so worth it, but if I could sustain being in shape year round I wouldn’t have to work so hard now.

So I’m a little busy for the next couple of months, but I will be checking in periodically. Enjoy life!  I am.