Flowing North

 

Today brought a revelation, only striking if you have become committed to developing a close relationship to a river, and an even closer one with a small reach of that stream.  From the source of the Ottauquechee in Killington to its Connecticut River outflow, we see a movement from west to east.  So, I have been talking about the downstream view from the Middle Bridge as looking eastward.  I was wrong.

Taking this picture today at half past noon, I was struck by how the sun threw a shadow of the bridge directly downstream.  At that time of day, the sun shines from the south, of course.  I checked a map, and sure enough, not far upstream the Ottauquechee takes a turn almost directly north, the beginning of a double S-curve through the rest of the village.  We see the north when we look downstream from the Middle Bridge.

The north was in the air and on the water today, with the temperature in the twenties and the first ice of the season appearing along the verges of the river.  In the photo, the thin frozen skin appears like a rash on the surface by the left bank.  More to come.