Eat a Fish, Rev Your Engines

Two things over the weekend, each with its charms: the peace of a lakeside stay and ….BIKER WEEK! The peaceful part involved 80-degree weather and a wind so strong you could hook an umbrella on it. A great blue heron swooped down right in front of us and grabbed a 12-inch fish right from the water, landed on the float 50 feet away, waggled his head this way and that until that fish went DOWN  – then sat there, the poor dying trout making a giant mound in his gullet.I tried to tape him taking off after he swallowed but only managed this crooked video in which nothing happens at all except a possibly nauseous feeling on the part of the people watching it.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FWQjEm0b8k]The other thing was the perenially crazy carryings-on of the  300,000 motorcycle enthusiasts who all but deafen the population each year when they visit for Biker Week. They zoom loudly up and down the roads surrounding the lake all night long, then start again bright and early in the morning.I was at the food store in Center Harbor at 4:01 Saturday and snapped the picture above - serenity itself, right? - then got in my car, drove 80 yards and at 4:02 caught the shot below. From the sublime to the tinniticulous. I may never hear right again.