Shortly after noon, the sun came out for a while after days of what the professionals call "mixed precipitation." Mixed or not, much of it made its way to the Ottauquecheee, now ice free along here. The episodes of freezing and thawing are, I expect, rehearsals for the winter, which officially has not even arrived.
I stood on the bridge today with a resident of River Street, which parallels the left bank. We recalled last year's early deep freeze. It had locked up the river tight, until the force of a midwinter thaw plastered both banks with six-foot high ramparts, walls of ice pushed to the side by meltwater. These remained until spring.
He told me where to look for fish (in the right bank shallows) and described seeing muskrats and otters on this stretch of river. My wildlife sightings so far have been restricted to ducks, crows and robins.
The water ran very clear today. Leaves still flowed along, entirely underwater now, and appearing nearly black, a far cry from their look of a few weeks ago. Some snagged themselves on the new bank of small rocks thrown up by the ice mess of the last days. With the bright midday sun, the photo below reveals the inverted V-shape of the stony shallow which now splits the main channel.
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