washing cars | nichepoetryandprose

nichepoetryandprose

poetry and prose about place

Posts Tagged ‘washing cars’

a ford in the river 5-3

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houses in Le Gué d’Alleré (image from Street View)

map showing distance travelled (map from Google Maps)

April 18’s virtual bike ride took me through the town of Le Gué d’Alleré. A ‘gué’ is a place on a river where the water is shallow enough to allow easy passage, in other words, a ford.

The river in Le Gué d’Alleré was so shallow, it had no water at all. I know this river sometimes holds water since there is an image embedded in Street View showing the river full of water!

river in Le Gué d’Alleré (image from Street View)

When I was young, we often visited my grandfather’s farm in Nova Scotia. One of the places I remember well was the ford across the stream at the end of his road. The water was shallow at this spot and people from the community would bring their cars to the ford to wash them. It would not have been good for the environment. Soap suds and leaking oil and gasoline would pollute the downstream water, probably harming the aquatic life, including the fish people liked to catch.

ford

at the intersection

of the lane and the County Road,

a ford crossed the stream–

flat stones and riffles

in the shade of serviceberry and maple

we watched as distant cousins

washed their cars,

all suds and Daisies

then took clean cars

further down the road

(further down the stream),