Take me down to Bass Ponds City where the watercress is green and the creeks are pretty... And not just green, green: vibrant, verdant eye-wrenching watercress green in a crystal-clear stream. I kept feeling that as I was concentrating to take a picture I would look up and a herd of deer would be staring at me, and I wouldn't have heard them because of the rushing water and being drawn in to the bottomless green.
There is a word about water that I've always admired, describing the "thalweg" of a stream. I was taught it means the "definitive flow channel" of the river, which may not be the dead center of a straight stretch or the outside bend on a corner, as you would expect. It's where the river is "determined to go." Others say it just means the deepest part of the river or valley.The stream here at the Bass Ponds today (which has been restocked with Brown Trout as it was many years ago) shows a meandering thalweg of clear, fast water, bounded by stationary mats of watercress as far as the eye can see.
To have this vibrant green alive and glowing there where the woods are still mostly gray bark and the dingy leaf duff of last fall, borders on the surreal.
During an afternoon training session along the Mississippi River Gorge, (the ONLY true river gorge for the entire length of the river I just found out, and it's right near our neighborhood) Chrissy & Fred pointed out this amazing tree bud they found along the path. They said, "You've got to take a picture of this, it's like two hands holding a broccoli!"
Indeed it is. I'm told it is an Elderberry bush.
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