A New Writing Desk

I pick up a new writing desk in the morning.  Actually, it is a used writing desk.  One that has been well cared for by the previous owners, just like the previous owners of my other desk had done.  I do not quibble about the price, knowing that I will get more use out of it than the dollar amount suggests and I have a nice chat with E as we do the deal.  It is just about exactly what I want...and perhaps "just about" makes it exactly what I want since I live by "good enough", jack of all trades that I am.  Best of all, my fine wife has approved this purchase and in so I feel the support that she gives towards doing what I do.

On the return journey, I have to cross over a pretty good sized river, and seems a shame not to take some time and christen the new desk.  I set out from just upstream of what used to be called Warner's Ferry, which runs five cars or less across the river during the summer months.  There is no ferry schedule...it goes when there is a car.  Anyway, it is just short of a mile, although it seems shorter, to the turn into the upper mouth of Selden Creek, for Selden Creek might have been a creek at some time, but now it looks to be more a narrow channel of the Connecticut River, calving off a well sized island that is state park without road access.  This desk is definitely faster, particularly upwind, which is important only in the secondary.  What it does do is give me longer legs, so to speak, on my explorations.

I head downstream against the wind, which is quite welcome on a 90 degree and sunny day.  The motorboats of the main channel give way to the egrets, herons and osprey of the back channel.

It is a deep enough channel all the way, with marshland edges broken by an occasional rock outcropping or a few scraggly hardwood trees that have managed to survive some seasonal flooding.  Farther back, the landscape rises up in forested hills.  The only thing missing is shade, as the river points directly at the sun.

When I get to the other mouth of the creek, something over 2 miles down, I find a pair of osprey watching over a young one.  They keep it hidden between them.  Not many yards away, another osprey is building a nest in one of those scraggly trees...I spot it carrying branches.  I return backup the narrow channel preferring the quiet to a further exploration of the big river's shoreline.

note the little one between the two adults

 

 

I feel quite at home sitting at the new desk.