LAPRAIRIE by Paul Ingram

I’m kind of a bear when I wake up in the morning. Usually my first movements of the day are getting the dog off of me, and feeling around on my nightstand like a blind man trying to find my glasses and my phone. And then we settle in on the daily morning quest to make all those annoying red dots with numbers on them disppear.

The red dots. They are the bane of my existance.

Don’t laugh. I know a guy who had that many. Constantly.

First Facebook. Blah blah blah blah… they still haven’t figured out what that ship is yet. Yeah yeah blah blah.

Instagram… more of the same. More of the same. Always more of the same.

Check MarineTraffic. ALGOMA INNOVATOR was due here yesterday and is still in Lake Huron. So much for ETA’s. Oh good… HAPPY RANGER made it to the lake. Not sure what that two-step with OCEAN K RUSBY was about but… it’s over. I can breathe now.

Breathe.

E-mail. It’s always my last stop of the morning. Intentionally. E-mail is almost invariably always one of two things. SPAM or BILLS. Sometimes I skip e-mail completely if I’m not in the mood.

An e-mail from… a BIRD? This is unprecedented. From a SMALL RAVEN? In that moment folks, I was a hair’s width from swiping it into the spam bin when I read the subject line, which contained the word LAPRAIRIE. My eyes were immediately open. It read:

1200×800 pixels (@16 1/2 x 11 inches), 965 kb, 300 dpi

Combining photos posted on The Prescott Anchor – May, 2020

At the present time I am not able to log in to my Facebook acct so am unable to post this. Paul Ingram

Paul had taken a bunch of my photos of LAPRAIRIE and made a watercolour out of it. 🤯

Below it was the familiar box from my iPhone that basically said “Hey, they sent an attachment, do you wanna view it?”

I admit I hesitated a second. I felt like Indiana Jones about to pop open the Ark of the Covenant and take a look inside. I didn’t know if I was going to be able to process what I saw when I clicked. But I clicked anyway. And I couldn’t process it.

LAPRAIRIE by Paul Ingram

I’m not a cryer but I was pretty much overwhelmed emotionally the moment it loaded. My eyes have been wet all morning. This is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in my life.

As per Paul’s advice I’m going to take it to Staples after this pandemic nonsense is over and get it printed on matte paper and framed.

Thank you my friend. You blew me away today.

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