Wetlands, Lakes, Streams, Ponds

To bicycle or walk across the Lake Champlain causeway is one of the delights of living in Vermont. Wasps are nature's paper makers, turning wood into the paper for their nests. I have included the beautiful, striated gray paper of the paper wasp in this painting.

A quiet, peaceful spot at dusk, on the shore of Fern Lake, Salisbury, Vermont

Standing inside the Mahaney Center of the Arts on Middlebury College Campus, on a typical Autumn day of constantly changing weather, the skies cleared and the sun struck the birch trees around the pond turning them a golden yellow. The reflections in the pond picked up all the colors of the surrounding landscape.

The water lilies were just opening in the pond in the early morning as we biked over to the Wooden Boat School, Brooklin, Maine.

Early morning reflections in the lily pond at the Wooden Boat School, Brooklin, Maine.

When Middlebury's Cross Street Bridge was built in 2010, it gave us new views of Otter Creek. I was captivated by the reflections of the trees overhanging the creek.

Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, Cambridge, Maryland

The full moon was rising over Lake Champlain near the Crown Point Bridge on a summer night, driving back from the Adirondacks, illuminating the shallows with it's reflection in the water.

After a paddle on the creek, the sun was reaching the golden hour, bathing the creek in glorious light.

During the January Thaw, we walked on Morse Rd. through the flood plain. The partially melted ice with the plants frozen underneath was beautiful.

Another memory of the magical island on Inle Lake in Burma.

Inle Lake is a shallow lake, 22km long and 11km wide, in the hills southeast of Mandalay. The 17 villages of the area are built on stilts right in the lake and food is grown in floating gardens staked to the lake bottom with bamboo poles. From our hotel we looked out over floating rice paddies and vegetable gardens. Men were out in their canoes tending the paddy. On an island in the distance was a temple. We could hear the chanting from across the water.

As we were moving from one place to another in our motor-propelled longboat "taxi", we passed this island covered with stupas crowded together as far as the eye could see. We passed by so quickly that I was only able to snap a few photos. I never found out the name of the place, but still find the images very beautiful.