Is it over yet?

Friday already. I don't think I've ever been more ready for a week to be over. TGIF!

I can't really say what it was about this week in particular that made it so rough but it just seems to have dragged me down and every time I thought I was feeling a little better, something kicked me again.

I spent quite a bit of time this week down by the creek, camera in hand, watching the amazing forces of nature in the forms of ice jams and massive volumes of violently rushing water.


April 14th - late morning before the heat of the sun broke the ice up completely.




April 16th early afternoon - the water is higher than yesterday and rushing much faster. The sky was cloudy and it was drizzling a bit but no actual rain thankfully. The water is usually on this side of all those trees and the trees are on the far bank. Now the water just flows straight across and barely follows the natural curve of the creek.
Beautiful. Ugly. Terrifying. Amazing.

How can something be all those things at once.

While our creek is technically flooded and looks nothing like the tiny trickle we can normally step across in mid summer but more like a rushing river and in places a small lake, we are in no danger of flooding to our home or actual property unlike some local areas or like the massive destruction and loss in other areas of the province.

In a way I feel bad that I am marveling at the natural disaster that has torn through our backyard but for some reason this week, down by the creek is one of the few places I feel at peace. I can relax there and get away from all the little things that have kicked at me all week.


Maybe it's because being down by the creek, seeing all that water, I know that in a few months it will look completely different. That the water will eventually slow down and things will return to normal and even if it looks a little different than it did last year, it will be okay. Maybe being down by the creek gives me hope that in a few months, even though our lives may be a little different, eventually the chaos will pass and everything will be okay.




June 7, 2008 - after a week of heavy rainfall. This is summer flooding of the creek.



October 23, 2008 This is normal creek levels. Even after a summer of rain there isn't much flow to the creek by late October. No beaver dam this summer to keep water in the far south end of the creek like in the past couple years. Maybe this year though. I caught a couple quick pictures of a beaver (So Cool!) while taking pictures of the flooding on Tuesday evening on the bank of the creek (the bank wasn't visible by Thursday) just to the left of the fallen tree in the top left of the picture.



This is the same tree (photo taken October 23, 2008) as seen in the middle of the 'river' in the 2nd picture. From the looks of things it won't be quite the same once the water receeds.


~K