To the River!

To the river, Ellie??!!

With these four words we will soon be off like a prom dress. Just the word "River" gets her feet moving and tail wagging. See last post for Ellie at rest.

How fortunate we are that the river is the focus of our town. I never would have imagined this in Worcester, Massachusetts where I was raised. The main river there was the Blackstone. Thirty years ago it was basically a sewer. The Blackstone is gradually being restored to its former glory as a queen of rivers.

But the Chemung!

My husband RJ, who knows these things, says the Chemung River is lately restored to cleanup status of trout stream. One can hardly imagine how clean it is for trout to be able to be stocked again. The pristine trout streams my Grampa fished in New Hampshire have nothing on our river.

The Chemung! Once crisscrossed by train trestles and walking bridges, now accessible by limited access sites and boat ramps. How fortunate we are to have her.

Ellie and I will walk south to the narrow waterfront area that seems to be largely occupied by the Elmira Water Board. It's a beautiful sunny Sunday and shortly people will congregate to sun and smoke and play and poke (at the marshy areas that hide bull frogs and egrets and geese and groundhogs).

Groundhogs? Yuppers, as they say around here. Ellie never sees them herself (short dachshund, you know), but she can smell them. She's designed by man to be able to enter the burrows, so she tries. I've seen her back out rather in a hurry. She hadn't seen the critter rush in there, but I did.

Well, I'm going. I don't know if I can manage a camera and Ellie at the same time. Can't resist the sunny day. Maybe some pics shortly.

pb
Little Pond