Morning at Eagle Lake

The camera button got jostled and I didn't notice it as I clicked away that morning at Eagle Lake on the Morehead State University campus. The setting was "soft." It wasn't what I intended, but it was a happy accident, I suppose, since it offered a dreamy, soft focus.

That was my second trip to the lake that morning. The first time, the sun was hidden behind a steel gray sky ...

... and fog lingered in the snow-tipped trees.

Eagle Lake is always on my list of places to visit when we're in Morehead. It never disappoints. Created in 1950 on the northern edge of the campus, the 30-acre lake was named for the majestic symbol of the University, the American Bald Eagle.

Whether reflecting the cloud-dotted blue sky of September ...

Created in 1950 with the impoundment of Evans Branch on the northern edge of the campus, this pristine, 30-acre lake was named for the majestic symbol of the University, the American Bald Eagle. Except for a small portion at the north end where Evans Branch empties into the lake, the shoreline property is owned by the University. - See more at: http://www.moreheadstate.edu/content_template.aspx?id=6707#sthash.bXlZKJis.dpuf Whether reflecting the August sky ...

... the icy waters of January ...

 

.... or the crisp cold of a November morning ...

... it never disappoints. 

Eagle Lake is part of the Daniel Boone National Forest. The Eagle Lake Trail starts on the Sheltowee Trace National Recreation Trail, but the majority of the trail is owned by MSU. So far, our visits to Morehead have not been conducive to hiking the trail. The first time, we were moving Brent from South Carolina to Kentucky, and our exercise was carrying boxes from the moving truck into the house and unloading them. During our other two trips to Morehead (the most recent during Thanksgiving week), we have brought unseasonably cold weather and snow.

So, instead of exploring the trail on foot, I stood at the start and took a few photos.

 

I would have liked to have seen the lake in the fall. Brent just might have made fun of my long-distance obsession with the leaves in Kentucky. But a fall trip didn't fit on the calendar of a Kansas farm family, what with fall harvest and moving cattle home from summer pastures.

So, I will have to be happy with another cold-weather view. And I am.

Earth and sky, woods and fields,

lakes and rivers,

the mountains and the sea, 

are excellent schoolmasters.

John Lubbock

Winterscape at Eagle Lake

Eagle Lake, Morehead, KY, January 2013, on the campus of Morehead State University

Bare branches of each tree

on this chilly January morn

look so cold, so forlorn.

Gray skies dip ever so low

left from yesterday's dusting of snow.

Yet in the heart of each tree

waiting for each who wait to see

new life as warm sun and breeze will blow,

like magic, unlock springs sap to flow,

buds, new leaves, then blooms will grow.

-  Nelda Hartmann, January Morn

Eagle Lake, Morehead, KY, September 2012, on the campus of Morehead State University

Whether it's bathed in the humidity of a late summer day or the brisk, catch-your-breath bite of winter, Eagle Lake is a place to savor nature in all its glory. 

 

Pull up a bench to the beauty ... to the tranquility ... to the silence.

The geese on my Kansas walks are noisy commas in the sky, honking to one another to stay in formation. These quiet cousins hunkered down on a bed of ice and snow, tucking into themselves in an effort to find a modicum of warmth. 

I hope to someday see this lake in autumn splendor, dressed in red, orange and gold. The beauty is there in all seasons - whether in monochromatic winter or electric-blue summer skies.

I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, 

 through which God speaks to us every hour, 

if we only will tune in.

George Washington Carver