crossing the brook
Of all kinds of waterways, I certainly love a brook the best.
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When I was a child, I spent many summer hours playing in the brook at my mother’s ‘old home place’. The brook was in a small wooded valley between farms. The woods around the brook were always cool and shady, especially on a hot summer day.
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Building stone causeways in the brook was one of my favorite pastimes. I would find flat stones and place them like stepping stones. Then, once the stones were in place, I would plant them with mosses.
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I haven’t returned to the brook for many years, but I like to think you could still find the grey and green remnants of my causeways at intervals along the brook!
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a brook in south-west New Brunswick with its own stepping stones
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construction of moss and stone
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in the valley between farms
a brook needs crossing
a freshet-proof ford
lattice-work built
of slate, grey stepping
stones, packed and decked with
moss, hydrophilic flourish
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© Jane Tims 2014
nichepoetryandprose 
Brooks are good fun- for every creek or river, there are many such small streams to examine up close.
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Watching Seasons
October 18, 2014 at 5:13 pm
Hi Tracy. It’s also fun to trace a stream back to its very beginnings! Jane
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jane tims
October 19, 2014 at 8:59 pm
Beautiful post, Jane. I love brooks, too. A good friend used to call me Babbling Brook (a play on an online name I used when I was hiding behind a pseudonym). I love the bright and colorful touch of autumn in your second image. We don’t have many maples here, and I miss them.
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Robin
October 18, 2014 at 10:32 am
Hi Robin. Brooks do babble, almost speak a language of their own. My first poem ever was about a brook (I was about 6)… ‘Down by our cabin runs a little stream, and I love it better than ice cream’ … The maples here are all bare as a result of yesterday’s wind. Jane
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jane tims
October 18, 2014 at 11:01 am
Lovely minimalist poem with an evocative back story!
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dianajhale
October 18, 2014 at 5:50 am
Hi Diana. Thanks! Jane
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jane tims
October 18, 2014 at 10:13 am
Beautiful pictures for sure. Especially since I moved to Southern California where we have no brooks or creeks, pronounced cricks in my native Kentucky. Just washes that have water present only an hour or two during rain storms.
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Bud Wasser
October 17, 2014 at 4:27 pm
Hi. We do have lots of water here, overflowing in spring but usually with flowing water all year through. We drove out west in 2002 and it was hard not to notice how scarce surface water is. Thanks for the visit! Jane
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jane tims
October 17, 2014 at 4:39 pm
lovely memories
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kiwiskan
October 17, 2014 at 3:57 pm
Hi. Thanks. Jane
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jane tims
October 17, 2014 at 4:16 pm