Life with Buddy, a Continuing Saga- 06/26/08 Deep Creek Photo Essay

It being totally too hot to do much else yesterday, Buddy, Grandma, and I, took a jaunt out the opposite direction from Manhattan, away from the dam, and Rocky Ford, to a place I have been considering for a photo essay for quite a while now, but had just not made it out to until yesterday. There is an area, in a sort of series of valleys, that is called Deep Creek. Deep Creek, itself, is always full of water, but the plethora of small spring fed creeks that are the source of this area's true beauty truly shine more in the spring of the year. So most of the year, that isn't very good truth in advertising, but in the spring, it might be a little more apt. Spring is over, but the creeks, though not so deep, remain. I have to admit, again, in springtime these creeks come alive, and this would have been a much more impressive subject, about April, but for what it's worth........




Crystal clear, spring fed creeks with gravel bottoms abound in the deep creek area, but in Spring, they are much less sedate. Johnny Darters can be found in these waters, as well as the juvenile forms of most indiginous game fish, but other than our friend Mr. Darter, the most common would be baby catfish of one species or another. When we were kids, we collected all of them to observe in our many aquariums at home, and even had darters spawn in one once. They are fascinating little guys, not unlike Gobies of saltwater fame. When they are in breeding colors, they are quite beautiful, as well, with a blue mottled body, and a red, white, and blue striped dorsal fin. The female digs into the gravel, with only her head and tail sticking out, and lays the eggs, then the male follows to fertilize them. We didn't manage to raise any of the little ones, in our aquarium, the eggs didn't survive, but the breeding  was an awsome thing to watch, in itself, for a bunch of fascinated kids.



These streams appear and disappear from the trees and the brush along the roads, and hold great tranquility for those that take the time to pause and explore them. When we were kids, we did a lot of that, but I suspect nowadays, landowners might be a little less understanding. I know of one ranch out this way that closed off their land soon after the snail darter controversy hit the news, and I imagine it's not hard to understand why.



Another view



There might be other reasons to keep me off their property. All of those white blossoms are elderberries. Have you ever tasted elderberry wine? If you had, you'd know why these creeks, that seem to be the ideal areas for this plant (there are tons of them), might be the center of someone's efforts to keep the public at bay. There are, it would be safe to say, miles and miles of elderberries out there, from what we saw, and my mouth waters just thinking about them. Preserves are to die for, as well.



All that white is mesmerizing, if you know what comes after, and in this shot, you can already make out the little growing berries



Mixed in with the elderberries we found splashes of color that probably didn't get there on their own. Birds may have distributed them, or maybe the land owners, that might enjoy them as they drive by, but trumpet vines were evident in a number of places, naturalized along our route, beautifying the scenery.



Speaking of things that didn't belong there, we thought there were some horses lazing in the shade, but when we got close enough, it was plain to see these transplants from the Andes were definitely not horses, lol. There's another one that ducked his head down just as I took this shot, to the left of the brown one.



There he is!, lol



This shot typifies a lot of the Deep Creek area, with amber waves of grain tucked into fields cut between valley hills. If it would ever quit raining, I imagine that wheat, minus some moisture content, is ready for a combine, already. Notice the bent trees on the hill up there. It was calm down where we were, with a little breeze, but the wind up there was obviously a lot stronger. I sat and watched them through the lens, and they were moving way too much to be just a breeze or two up there. I would have loved to have been able to climb up there, as hot as it was, but one, I'd of probably had a heart attack, and two, I might have gotten in trouble for trespassing, lol.



Looking off the other direction.



And yet another view.



On our way out of the area, we found ourselves back at the sign I showed you going in. It sits near this schoolhouse, that has a sign of it's own. This little schoolhouse has been here quite a little while, it seems



Deep Creek School



Signage



I hope this photo essay has shown why we love to take drives out through this area, usually earlier in the year, of course, or at least we did before four dollar a gallon gas, anyway. After we drove out of the Deep Creek area proper, we went on to a place called Pillsbury's Crossing, the jewel of this area, but I think we'll save that for tomorrow, and I'll just say, Till Then, Ron & Buddy.



Link to updated Ron & Buddy materials. They're all in here, from the beginning, sagas, poems, etc. All about the Budster, in many varied and interesting reflections... or whatever they're calling rants, in polite circles, these days.

Link to all poetry by Ron W. on Gather

Link to new groupies site - Go here and join, for email notifications of new Saga publishoscity. Don't miss these important literary nuggets, or you'll end up like Buddy,.... denuggified without even knowing about it.......