Carving the Current

Over the past days, the weather people tell us, a low pressure system has been stuck over the Canadian Maritime Provinces, sending clouds and cool air our way.  I don't recall several days running like this when the clouds seem almost identical one day to the next.  Meanwhile, the river grows slowly smaller and the grass greens.

As the river drops,

 bottom stones show in shadow,

carving the current.

As it drops, the rocks along the bottom carves the current

Greening

And round the bend...

Clearing Stream

Ribbed clouds above

Throw rippled surface shadows

to the clearing stream.

The Wind Moved Over the Face of the Waters

Lower, Clearer

As the river shrinks 

after the latest spring pulse, 

the water grows clear.  

At its height, the stream 

flowed chocolate, now you can

see the larger rocks.

The Odd Couple of Ducks

As I stood on the bridge, a pair of mergansers shot from underneath it, borne by the main current of the Ottauquechee, down some from past days, yet still flowing well.  They are an odd male/female combination.  The male has a black head and black top to his frame, while the rest, at least while swimming, is pure white.  The female seems mostly brown, with a tuft of feathers pointing backwards, like hair in a hurricane.  They do not look like they belong together.  They rode the fastest part of the river, traversing from left to right with the flow, the female behind the male by a foot or two, until they entered the rippled white water around the bend and sped out of sight.

Vacillating River

Watching the flowing,

 the vacillating river,

the clouds hover, wait.

The Great River

I drove down the Connecticut River valley today to Keene, NH.  At Westminster, VT, I clambered down to the edge of New England's great river to take the picture below.  The spot where I stood had been underwater not long ago. The pink in the bottom left is a piece of plastic caught in a branch.

Tonight when I took the picture at the top of the post, I could not resist shooting the sight upriver of the Middle Bridge as well.

Swift Mountain Stream

I drove up the valley this morning, and so took the picture below of a "swift mountain stream," the meaning of Ottauquechee in Abenaki.

Springing River

After the rain fell.

the sun broke up the clouds

and the river rose,

Pouring sharply from

the old mill-built Queechee dam,

throwing spray up high.

Three Views

 

The river yesterday afternoon.

The river downstream that evening.

The river tonight near sunset.

Rolling River

After 10 days in England, mostly in London, often by the Thames, I saw the Ottauquechee while driving west on Rt. 4 up the valley yesterday evening.  It tumbled over the Taftsville bridge, and the glimpses of its twists and turns down the slope and through the trees revealed a full stream, bearing Killington snow away to the Connecticut. 

This morning, watching 

from the Middle Bridge, I saw 

the river rolling.

A Tributary in Holy Week

This Easter afternoon the Ottauquechee burgeons with a spring flow.  

Yesterday, while out Rt. 4 west a mile or so, I found the freshet below jetting through the trees.

 

To my delight, I tracked it a few yards to where it joined the main stream. A tributary!

I am signing off for a post-Easter break. I look forward to posting again soon.

Torn Veil

The moment I reached my usual spot on the bridge, I looked over the railing.  Just then two ducks emerged heading downstream. The male had striking black and white features around his head and breast, the female a tuft of feathers sweeping back from her head.  They took my breath away.  They moved swiftly in the current and then hung out, as can be seen in the picture:  two black specks near the ice jutting out from the left bank.

By evening, that ice had been swept away and the water's edge reached as high as the snowy strip on the riverbank.  The water was brown, rising and moving fast.

I am pondering the connection of the river opening up these past days and Holy Week.  "The veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom," might be a good start.

Free

The river downstream from the Middle Bridge opened in the night, despite the sub-freezing temperatures.  The cold still created slush patches flowing along as they did in the early winter before the ice took over. Watching these ice islands stream by, they seemed like jigsaw puzzle pieces.  Instead of needing just the right shape to join the larger puzzle, though, as soon as they touched a neighbor patch, they changed shape to meld right in.

I had forgotten how playful the river can be. 

Opening Up

The main Ottauquechee channel swept open a swath of ice during the night, despite temperatures in the teens.  Upriver at the Rt. 4 bridge around noon, the stream seemed nearly normal, ice only at the edges. By the evening, the channel was open all the way to the bend, with the exception of an ice pile-up near the wall along the right bank.