Saturday, January 28, 2012

Clear Creek in January


During the awful month last summer that I stayed in the hospital with Mom, I yearned for Clear Creek--less because I wanted to get outside in the July sun (although that was part of it), mostly because having the freedom to jaunt off to go hiking would mean a return to Life Before. But nothing returned to normal.

Now I have the freedom to go wherever I like. It's not the way I wanted to get that freedom, but it's what I have now and I might as well use it. So although it's cold today, I took my new little (cheap-ass) camera to Clear Creek after work. Here are some pictures.

Here's a big tree with huge buttressed roots. I'm not sure what kind of tree--ash?--but you can see how big it is by my shadow at the bottom.





This is an overexposed photo since the sun was in my face but I was standing in the shade, and I love the effect. It shows an impressive vine twining through winter trees, the kind of vine we call "grapevine" locally although it has nothing to do with grapes. If you can find one hanging down at just the right height, they're the best swings ever.




And this is the view from observation point, my destination today. I sat on the bench and looked at the dam and the river far below me, and thought about how much Mom liked to walk along the river, and how last summer--before her stroke and the hospital and everything else--we took a picnic to the river. It was a perfect day, hot but breezy, and when we left with the picnic basket swinging empty in my hand, we ran into a wedding at the river's edge and stayed to watch the couple kiss.

Summer will be here again soon.

4 comments:

Aaron Polson said...

Beautiful scenery - I'd love to have something a little more scenic around here, especially in the heart of winter.

K.C. Shaw said...

This is the drabbest time of the year here, but at least we have that emerald moss. In a few weeks the countryside should start to green up. I'm very lucky to live here (and five minutes away from the river and hiking trails).

Kelly Robinson said...

When we were kids, my brother and I dubbed a section of the woods by our house the To-the-Dump Playground. "Playground" because it had the best vines for swinging EVER, and "To-the-Dump" because there was a fallen tree that you could stand on and bounce. We would bounce while singing "To the dump, to the dump, to the dump, dump, dump" to the tune of the William Tell Overture. I have no idea why. The vines just brought all that back to me!

K.C. Shaw said...

That makes perfect sense to me.

When my brother and I were little, our grandparents' neighbors had THE PERFECT VINE hanging over a steep slope that led from their yard down to the woods. We swung on it all the time with the neighbors' grandkids, until one day when we went over and their granddad had SAWED IT OFF to keep us from falling and breaking our widdle necks. Grownups ruin everything.