Beautiful Like…

Beautiful like an autumn brook trout rising from its low-water house to snatch a dry fly on the riffles… I was on the upper Kettle just before the big rains came, and it was good. Many native trout, survivors of the season past, came to hand and were released with best wishes for the colder months. A couple of wild browns also came to hand, but this headwaters range is mostly brook trout water, pristine habitat, still.

 

Beautiful like the rains that filled these streams and rivers to the bank, some of them muddy and unfishable, some of them lively and primarily clear. The rain, much needed, has refreshed the land and water, making us wish that thirsty lands, untouched by Hurricane J., could benefit in a similar fashion.

Beautiful like a hurricane that’s turned to the sea rather than to a rain-drenched upland (Carolinas excepted, our sympathies extended, where many nearly drowned). The constant media coverage brought the “fight or flight” instinct to the blood and raised hopes in the bored and ignorant for a killer storm to hit these shores. But there’s no room for boredom here. There’s too much life to be lived to raise that ugly head.

Beautiful like Straight Run in the upper Pine Creek watershed, bright and murmuring as the weather cleared, as a blue dome settled on the forested hills. Modesty forbids me to say how many brook trout came to hand and then wavered into safety from this run. Actually, I lost count soon after starting my upstream walk, but they were small and colorful as the leaves.

Beautiful like the Toronto Blue Jays winning the American League Eastern Division for the first time since 1993. (Feel free to insert your own favorite team into this statement, as long as it’s a winner surfacing from nowhere and singing “I’ve Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me.”)

Beautiful like a “super” moon eclipsed by the earth’s shadow after an exciting day on the stream. I remember a similar moon in 1982, reflections in tranquility when the body turned blood-red like a far place in the mind. In a time of Mideastern wars and mass murders in the USA, reflections of this sort can ease the tribulations of a soul.

Beautiful like a new book from my own hand, published by a small press in northern Vermont.

Beautiful Like a Mayfly is my first new book in five years. It’s not a fly-fishing book although new tales of fishing, hiking, birding, and explorations far and wide abound within. As Rivertop Rambles approaches its 400th narrative post, always bringing you my best nature writing, it comes without advertising (unless WordPress slips one in) and without excessive honking of my own damned horn.

But now I can’t help myself. Yes, it’s a fine book from an awesome little press that’s worthy of consideration. Click on the Wood Thrush Books blog-post at Woods Wanderer for a heads-up on the book, or click on the Amazon link here under “Works,” and see for yourself. If you’ve already ordered a copy, or have checked it out and given it some thought, my thanks for your support.

And furthermore…

Beautiful like my readers when they drop a “Like” or post a comment or read the blog from time to time. Beautiful when they order a book every now and then (like when the super moon goes russet red).

mayfly photo by Scott Cornett