High Water and Inspiration

What makes a river so restful to people is that it doesn’t have any doubt—it is sure to get where it is going, and it doesn’t want to go anywhere else. — Hal Boyle

Last weekend, Steve and I thought we would take the Brew Babes for a walk at the Rum River Park.

We knew that the rivers in our area are very high from the recent rains so we wouldn’t be able to follow all of the paths straight through, but last year, when the river flooded, we were able to detour to higher ground and eventually work on back to the path.

Well, for some reason, even though we’ve had a whole lot less rain this year, the rivers are much higher. People down south must be sending us their rainfall.

And did I mention mosquitos? It was a blood bath! I practically ran screaming back to the car, where several of the little vipers managed to hitchhike inside the Mini via the Java fur taxi.

The flooding made for a few interesting photos before the whole running and screaming thing. Like these tadpoles feasting on an earthworm.

And there were bugs that didn’t bite,. But what the heck are these anyway? From what I can find, this is perhaps a black winged damselfly?

Gluttons for punishment, we decided to see how the path was along the Mississippi River. More of the same. But it did offer up a magical forest quality.

There’s a group of us that are anxiously waiting to see if the rivers come down so we can execute a float down a river. Here is my friend Sue, modeling one of the swans. As one person suggested, if the rivers rage, all that may be visible is a bunch of swan beaks swirling through the water.

Speaking of Sue, she’s landed a pretty cool art commission to create artwork to welcome people to an outdoor classroom at a neighborhood school. Sue has been and continues to be an inspiration to me. She did an awesome job preparing her presentation, and her sculpture work is amazing!

You can read all about it and send her some applause at “How I Got the Biggest Job of My Career”.

Let’s all make like a river and flow!