The Retreat

Isabella did not bring her camera on her recent visit to Julia's beautiful lakeside retreat, it was a year round retreat for Julia and her family and, an as often as possible, usually just a once a year, retreat for Isabella. She didn't want to lug her camera  just to watch it sit while she never took a picture, so, of course, once there, when everything around her was beautiful, she wished she had brought it along.  Now,  instead of a documenting her observations on film, she captured their beauty in writing on paper with  pencil.

Isabella awoke the first morning of her visit to the lake as it glistened under a pristine sky like a million brilliant drifting jewels, it was mesmerizing, ones eyes could fix for hours upon such a scene.

The lake looked different the following morning as it did every morning.  This morning, timing and placement of the sun making a profound difference, the glistening jewels, not quite so individually brilliant, were in a wide band between two trees leaving the rest of the lake fallow.

Today, the lake looked, again, entirely different from the day before as the sky was gloomy.  It was a cool overcast morning, so Isabella's focus was drawn to the northerly movement of the water.  She chose to look at the lake through the trees preferring this slightly obstructed view. The waves were swift yet slight seeming almost alive with creatures, Isabella understood how monsters could slip by undetected in such water.

On this, her final morning of her retreat, Isabella looked at the lake and gained a greater understanding of what inspires artists to paint, especially the lumonists. The sky was dramatic with billowing chiaroscuro clouds as hills in the distance were shrouded in layers of fog.  Closer to shore, the lake was like glass,  but soon, it would have a ripple effect.  The light in the sky and its reflection on the lake changed in a mere second from soft glow to blinding bright.