Twas cold and gloomy over the weekend, and my hip was barking due to the general lack of riverine forays. Nearing Noon today, everything was transformed with brilliant sunshine, and I reached for my boots and a down jacket to enjoy a river walk.
The porch thermometer read well above freezing, and I headed off with a smile. I walked briskly, the sunlight having brightened my mood considerably. Nearing the turnaround where the public road ends, I saw something in the distance: a whitetail, perhaps a hundred yards down the remains of a private woods road. The deer was feeding peacefully wherever the sun had revealed a tuft of meadow grass, and I was surprised to find her companion just at the edge of the meadow no more than fifty yards away. I turned quietly and left them to their foraging, undisturbed.
A countercurrent caught my eye in a slot between two ice islands, and I noticed the wind on the river blowing hard upstream. I’d felt none of that breeze standing there, still didn’t, and I smiled with the realization that I was being spared the cold blast in the face by some pleasant whim of Nature. I had dallied there a few minutes, watching the winter wildlife with that gorgeous sun in my face, and got a shock when I turned for the return northward.
Though all of Crooked Eddy still basked in the sunlit benevolence of the day, the mountains to the North were being overrun by a dark, stormy mass of clouds, sure to bring snow before I reached home. I watched that front boil over the mountain tops, still walking in the sun, even as I reached the steps and the cover of the porch.
I was nearly convinced the day had changed her moods once more when I sat down to watch the clouds pushing easterly.
I hadn’t sat there more than ten minutes when the terrain darkened, and the first snowflakes began to swirl about. Ten more and a bonafide squall had erupted!
It snowed heavily for twenty minutes, enough for me to nod and let my eyelids fall in the comfort of the recliner. What better thing for an afternoon snowstorm but a nap?
In truth though, I am not much of a day sleeper. My eyes soon winked to behold blue skies and sunshine once more!
The moods of the day get me dreaming of soft sunlight on my shoulders… and golden cane arching to the music of the reel…
Bright Waters Catskill 