Ted Decker sent these great shots of a loon take-off. Loons are notorious for needing lots of "runway" to get airborne. Ted caught this one as Ted titled his message, "stepping out" of the water. Here's Ted's message:

Thought you might like to see one of the loons doing his version of "beatin' feet".

Took these yesterday (the 23rd) from our front porch. Ted

I'm sorry I can't get all three shots lined up as Ted took them, but I'm putting them in line from top to bottom, in sequence.

That in itself takes some doing as the blogger program doesn't lend itself well to placing pictures exactly where you want them. It sort of juggles at will and I have to play with it to get them any where near where I want them to be. Not only that, but the screen I'm working on looks nothing like the screen you see. So I juggle and publish, juggle and publish until I either get tired of it or have some success. That's why sometimes pictures are on the right, sometimes on the left, and not lined up very well.

This actually looks pretty good, so you can see the pictures in the sequence Ted took them. He had to be really steady and quick - nice shots. Thanks, Ted.

For those of you who aren't here in Vermont this morning, we continued our chilly night time into the morning hours for a little while, and even now it's only 70 degrees on my shaded thermometer. There's been a brisk west wind all morning that has been banging doors closed and making things go "bump" in the day. It's actually just a shade too cool with all the windows open, so instead of following the sun to close the window shades this morning, I've been keeping them open but closing windows on the windy side of the house. Even so, there's some kind of suction thing going on because there are windows open in the basement and every now and then the basement door bangs closed or my office door swings to the half-way point and I need to be aware so I don't bump into it - close quarters in my office! The really good news is that the humidity is way lower than it has been. I don't know the official report, but the air feels really good. Great day for sailing.