Dairy Daze...and Now Beyond

 What winter here is complete without a walk to the creek and a picture of Ellen down there?  None that I know of.    I love how clear the water is this time of year.  There is still a thin layer of algae on the rocks, which gives it that gold/brown color.  Following in Ellen's footsteps as we waded in the water I could track her because everywhere she had stepped the rocks were gray; her boots had cleaned the algae off of the rocks. 

A couple of days ago; Monday, I believe, Bella and  I once again forsook civilization and betook ourselves off of the ridge down to the creek.  It had rained a bit over the weekend, so it was up some, rushing along.   It was even foaming in spots.  I'd always thought when writers spoke of "foaming" waters they were being artistic in their speech.  Not true When the creek gets with it and rushes and tumbles along, it DOES churn up foam in the tree roots.  Bella wasn't too sure of the creek's being up and in a hurry.  She isn't as shy of water as she used to be but it took her a couple of tries before she made it to the other side.  She'd go in up to her elbows-like, then turn back. But she finally braved it and took off.   She was quite proud of herself when she made it to the other side, the water had actually pushed her off course a foot or two.  We went upstream a couple hundred yards or so.  The...