Tuesday, January 26, 2010

A happy, happy, happy walk around Ipswich

After all of last week's political gloom and doom, and then cold and snow, this morning dawned a balmy 38 degrees. I was determined to take my toddler for an early morning walk around town to cheer us up, banish the cabin fever we've both been feeling and hopefully spot the bald eagle I saw near the town wharf a few weeks ago (when I sadly did not have a camera). One thing I love about my town is that I can step out my front door, walk five minutes down the street and be along the river walk.

I told my daughter that it won't be long before the chimney swifts are back to nest in the round holes in the foundation of the long building on the right (click to enlarge). They fill the sky over the river in the summer chasing insects.

It was still a bit icy and with yesterday's rain there was a lot of water coming over the dam. This dam has been here for centuries but there's a movement starting in town to have it removed to make fish passage easier and hopefully restore our anadromous fish run. Studies show there's bedrock just upstream of the dam and without the impediment there would be a nice rapid right through town. Our house is just around the bend upstream, we could literally walk to the end of our street, jump in our kayaks and paddle the three miles out to sea. I told my daughter that I hope we can all do that someday, she smiled.

She was even more happy when I let her out of the stroller to walk up and down the foot bridge. This is the first time she's been able to do this since she learned to walk as there's been so much snow and ice. I swear she let out a twenty second rapid jumble of words as soon as she ran up to the bars and pressed her little face closer to the falls. I recognized "happy", "water" and "walk" in there. "Happy" was repeated over and over. It's her new favorite word.

She fell asleep somewhere along the lower river near the town wharf so she missed the beautiful shapes the melting ice takes when the current slows.

But when she woke up in Zumi's, our local fair trade coffee shop, she babbled "happy" again and again. I think we both feel better. Walks and January thaws (and a decaf caramel cloud latte for me:) definitely make us both "happy". Perhaps when she wakes up from her nap we'll go to the beach!

10 comments:

  1. Happy happy happy happy... HAPPY!

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  2. Oh Kate, she is such a lovely pink Little Person! I love your writeup and your pictures. I had to enlarge them to appreciate your "thaw" -- and the only difference I would make in that drink is to make it a triple with caffeine!

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  3. Your photos are wonderful. It looks like such a nice place for a walk to rid yourself of that cabin fever. I was surprised to see how close the building foundations are to the water. I would be worried about flooding problems.

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  4. Aw looks like you two had fun! Thanks for stopping by my blog and encouraging us to join the CSA. Perhaps after a few more weekends of going to the Farmer's Market (the farm we'd be joining has a booth there) we'll join :-)

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  5. beej: happy indeed! until she fell face first into the asphalt later that afternoon, in the excitement of being outside she ran a bit too fast for her little legs :)

    DJan: I would have had a quadruple caffeinated beverage if I wasn't incubating another little one. I try to limit myself to one cup of caffeine a day, and even that makes me feel guilty, but I hear you! caffeine = :)

    Rae: funny you should mention the flooding, we do have flooding problems, see my blog photos from the 2006 floods: http://holdfastseeker.blogspot.com/2009/06/ipswich-river-2009-herring-count.html the last photo is of the dam, but you can't see the dam for all the water, hopefully that won't happen again for a long time but I'm glad we're about 300 feet back from the river bank!

    Green Gal: your blog is so excellent for someone so young, I try to get there as often as motherhood allows. I really do hope your family does the CSA, it ends up being cheaper than buying veggies from a store, it makes you eat your veggies AND you're supporting agriculture staying near you and not being shipped across the country to us. (not that we mind fresh veggies in the winter, but we need to give up being so spoiled :)

    Thanks for visiting everyone! -kate

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  6. It looks more like winter in *your* neck of the world these days ... here we just have frosting.

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  7. I know 'zackly where you took these. I know Zumi's too!

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  8. Happy Happy, what a fun day.
    You're such a great mom. I could feel her joy from here. I love your pics and descriptions. That river sounds amazing, kayaking right out to sea. Wow!
    Your coffee sounds delicious too.
    Thanks for this jaunt.

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  9. red-handed: you make the frosted Canadian landscape sound so yummy!

    Steve: Isn't Zumi's great? The owners are the nicest guys too. Can't wait for summer for the riverwalk to really come alive with birds and beavers and river otters and turtles!

    Bethany: it's always nice to hear you're being a great mom, especially when you have moments of wanting to scream and wondering if you're doing a good job. so thanks! made my morning :)

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  10. This was a beautiful post, and beautiful photos.

    So happy you had this wonderful spring walk and are teaching the little one all these interesting things about life.

    Thank you for such a beautiful moment!

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