By the River

When we paused by the Clyde River yesterday, there was a heat haze over everything - the temperature was over forty with the humidity factored in, and everything within view seemed to be draped in silver and gently shimmering: skies, fields, trees, farm buildings, cows, sheep and the water too.

The Clyde is a fine place to be on a hot summer day in June. You can walk along the shore for quite a distance, climbing over the farmer's fence and keeping a eagle eye out for the bull, or you can choose the safer alternative and sit listening to the current moving briskly along under the bridge and around the bend. This is one of our favorite thinking places, especially in autumn, and it's not unusual to find several deer drinking along this stretch of shoreline in early evening and flocks of wild turkeys grazing under the fiery maples in the field nearby.

It was too hot for climbing over fences yesterday, and we sat lazily on the shore watching a pair of Canada Geese paddling slowly up and down with their curious offspring. Managing a brood of that size is quite an undertaking. There always seems to be at least one gosling taking off on his or her own and swimming off in another direction entirely - he or she must be coaxed into returning to the family group by a patient but very firm parent. I could almost hear these parents scolding their kids and warning them about snapping turtles lurking in the greenery along the edge.

Fanning myself (and Himself and Cassie) with an aspen wand to keep the deer flies at bay yesterday, I felt exactly like a female Huckleberry Finn, right down to my reluctance to move along and "get going". His river was a little wider of course....