On the Left bank

At Goodwill the other day, I picked up Simon Winchester's account of the Yangtze River, The River at the Center of the World.  About all the Yangtze and the Ottauquechee have in common is that each has two banks with water flowing in between.  All the same, a river is a river, and Winchester taught me something right away:  the left bank is the side on the left as you face downstream.  It took me 67 years to learn this.  I have seen countless references to the Left Bank of the Seine and never understood what that meant. The left bank of the Ottauquechee is to the north, and more locally, on the River Street side.

I was out here earlier than usual, around eight.  Lingering dawn light brushed cloud and river surface. 

The crew that had been here a week or so ago to set up scaffolding underneath the Middle Bridge returned this morning.  Under-bridge stabilizing cables need attention.  I saw workers manhandling two 30-foot aluminum catwalks down the steep left bank just upstream of the bridge. preparatory to attaching them from below, suspended above the current.  A small dinghy lay nearby.  A FEMA-funded project, and, I guess, a legacy of the power of Tropical Storm Irene.