a new year, ten lines
of bare-bones imagery,
a brook guided by its banks
and hemlock sentries,
rushing with snow-melt,
pushing trout and boulder,
to escape its bounds–
to river in imagination,
life and death, its origin
a place between two stones
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About rivertoprambles
Welcome to Rivertop Rambles. This is my blog about the headwaters country-far afield or close to home. I've been a fly-fisher, birder, and naturalist for most of my adult life. I've also written poetry and natural history books for thirty years. In Rambles I will mostly reflect on the backcountry of my Allegheny foothills in the northern tier of Pennsylvania and the southern tier of New York State. Sometimes I'll write about the wilderness in distant states, or of the wild places in the human soul. Other times I'll just reflect on the domestic life outdoors. In any case, I hope you enjoy. Let's ramble!
I almost went for a walk today in a similar, but slightly flatter, winter environment. But 20 mph winds and horizontal snow sent me back inside for a nice hot bowl of beef stew.
The bright green is so striking against all that white in a few of the shots. You get so used to seeing nothing but browns this time of year. It must be nice to have those roads to wander in this kind of weather, even if they are buried in snow.
Ken, Thanks! I’m enjoying the brook walks this winter, but actually these scenes were taken a few days back. Today, believe it or not, a friend and I went steelhead fishing in a snow like you are speaking of. Crazy New Year tradition, 16 degrees F., breezy, snowing, no fish caught. We quit after 2 hours when our reels were so frozen they refused to work! Fun, in a masochistic way.
I don’t think I would ever get tired of that scenery.
That scenery is a comfort to me, Jim, but you can be thankful that its white stuff doesn’t make a mess of your local roads.
Walt – What a peaceful scene. happy new year.
Long, may a similar peace give you comfort and hope throughout the coming year.
Nice images Walt.
I to am a fan of those hemlock sentries.
Thanks Alan. Those sentries overlook a lot of our fishing, don’t they.
Great pics, we seem to be getting the cold with none of the snow. Honestly I’d rather have teh snow. Next Tue the high is 18 degrees.
Thanks Kevin. Yeah the snow is nice, but here we’re about to get the cold with it. Zero this morning, maybe -17 by tomorrow. That really slows things down.
Hi Walt. The photo of the powerline cut reminds me of a place that I used to hike to when I was a kid growing up in the “wilds” of New Jersey. A stream ran under one such cut. It’s stained water was home to a bunch of dark brook trout. I’d like to think that they are still there.
Those powerline cuts are all over the place in this region, and there’s a brook trout stream at the bottom of this one, as with the one you knew, Les. The best that can be said for them is that they give us better access to what’s left of wilder areas (maybe better for some kinds of wildlife) but there’s a price for that, too. Hopefully that NJ line still has those brookies in the water.
Walt, the Environmental Center looks like a beautiful place to visit. Where is it located?
Hey Bob, the Center is just outside of Genesee village in PA, on the West Branch. Open for dining Sunday till 2 p.m. and for touring by arrangement. It’s a “trouty” place where conservation groups and others occasionally meet.