About a dozen yards behind my house is the confluence of the creek I live on with one of its tributaries. Right now, since it hasn't rained in almost two weeks, the water level in the creek is several feet lower than when I moved in last month. You can see the rocks in the creekbed; some of the sidestream beds -- where the stream splits to go around obstructions during high water -- are dry; and there are little waterfalls and eddies everywhere. A couple of weeks ago you couldn't see the little "peninsula" where the smaller creek enters the larger. It was under water.
To orient yourself, the creek runs downstream from northeast to southwest (towards the left in the photo above.) The small tributary creek runs in approximately the opposite direction, from west to east, and merges with the main creek at a 150-degree angle. When the water level of the main creek gets high enough, its current is a lot stronger than that of the tributary. Then the tributary backs up, causing flooding in the areas it traverses upstream.
The other day, I looked out of my kitchen door and saw two guys kayaking down the creek. They took a rest stop on a small island just upstream from my house. That island did not exist six weeks ago. Shortly after I moved in here, in early January, the creek was very high and fast, and it eroded the right bank. The soil beneath a tall tree on the bank gave way, and the tree was uprooted and fell partly across the creek. As the weeks went on, debris and rocks carried by the stream collected around the fallen tree and created an island. The creek stream split, with a new, smaller stream flowing between the tree and the bank.
It's been amazing to observe how alive this creek is, and how it is constantly changing. In the photo above, the water looks blue, because the weather that day was sunny and clear, and the water reflected the blue sky. On overcast days, when it has been raining and the creek is full of runoff from upstream, the water appears brownish-green.
That's how nature works. We have fertile farmland because rivers normally overflow their banks at periodic intervals. People build their communities beside the rivers and then construct dikes and levees to protect their property from flooding. That interrupts the natural cycle by which the soil is replenished, as well as causing other problems, such as are seen in the Mississippi River delta in south Louisiana, where land is being eroded and not replaced by the soil deposits that are the natural result of floods.
Every once in a while, a levee gives way and an inhabited area is flooded. We humans refer to that as a natural disaster. If nature could talk, I expect it would disagree.
If we ever have the idea that we've got any control over what nature does, we are in denial. I have heard people say about the residents of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, "it's their fault for living in an area where there are hurricanes."
I've got news for everyone: there is no place on this planet that is safe, if by "safe" we mean that we can make things stay the same and avoid unexpected and inconvenient events. Life does not work that way.
Hey Kitty,
I don't know if you saw the previous comment I left, but I compared the setting for your house with Walden Pond. Wanna swap it for the view from a garage apartment in Joisey? :)
Posted by: michael | Tuesday, February 21, 2006 at 09:16 AM
well, Michael, it appears that your previous comment has disappeared into cyberspace. :O :)
Anyway, you're right about Walden Pond in more ways than one, although for some reason that comparison hadn't occurred to me til you said it. It's the perfect setting for me to be coming to the realizations that I am having. Themes of independence, interdependence, simplicity, responsibility ... not to mention that it's just plain gorgeous here.
I just now checked out a website showing Walden Pond. There is a sign posted at the Pond with something Thoreau wrote about being there:
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life. And see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."
Michael, I needed to read that, so thanks for your post. :)
Posted by: Kitty | Tuesday, February 21, 2006 at 06:46 PM
:)
Posted by: Michael | Tuesday, February 21, 2006 at 09:01 PM
been checking out your pictures... I like your blog.
Posted by: Reid | Sunday, February 26, 2006 at 07:59 AM
Thanks, Reid. I just spent some time reading back in your blog. Very thoughtful and insightful writing. You're exploring some important things there.
Posted by: Kitty | Monday, February 27, 2006 at 05:14 AM