Tales of the Riverbank

It was really nice and sunny and quite warm on Tuesday so Florence and I took a walk down by the river. I took this picture of the ice breaking up. Like a lot of people, I’m pretty anxious for any sign of Spring. We also found some tracks that I thought might have been made by a fisher. I sent this picture to my brother Curtis and he said he thinks they are and that their population seems to be up. I was pretty sure I saw one down by the river this past fall but wasn’t close enough to make a definite identification.

You get to see a lot of wildlife when you live on a river bank. Sometimes it reminds me of that show that used to be on when I was a kid that was called ‘Tales of the River Bank’. Only in that one, the animals talked and had tea parties and stuff. Any of you remember that one? It was a CBC production (1959-1961).The main characters were rodents, Roderick the Rat and Hammy the Hamster. In supporting parts were Mrs. Duck, Mrs. Hen, Mr. Weasel, Mr. Guinea-Pig, and Mr. Squirrel.

I also had a fairly large collection of Thornton W. Burgess bedtime story books when I was a kid. I ended up giving them all away after I ‘outgrew’ them but I remember some of the characters… Peter Rabbit, Patty the Beaver, Jimmy Skunk, Sammy Jay, Uncle Billy Possum, Reddy Fox, Prickly Porky, Bobby Coon, Jerry Muskrat … and some really neat places like the Laughing Brook, Smiling Pool and Old Briar Patch. There was a human presence that occasionally made the scene as Farmer Brown would sometimes make it into the story line, but it was always only a cameo performance. After all, Farmer Brown lived way clear up beyond the fields and the story lines were always told from the perspective of the forest animals. As a child, I found that to be totally fascinating. I think it was because I was ‘Farmer Brown’ and I lived way up beyond the field. And though I loved to visit ‘the woods’ every chance I had, and very often did, it was totally cool to be able to read what went on when I wasn’t around!

O well, just a little trip down memory lane. Not sure what purpose it serves if any but it is fun to remember isn’t it! Maybe it’s like taking a mini-vacation. Come on Spring.