Wintry Creek at High Water; One Smug Cat

Raging currents

An all night rain amounting to about four inches put every area waterway into flood stage. I decided to come out of hibernation long enough to get some pictures, even though I don’t much like winter. On January 4th, 2015, here’s what our creek looked like.

No end in sight

The temps were mild, but a little on the cool side for me. The sky was overcast. The water was boiling mad, rough and moving fast. Much faster than it looks in the pictures. We used zoom to get these photos. Don’t get close to any flood waters! You could get hurt falling into water like this.

Ruffled water

We know the terrain alongside of this creek well, and we’re experienced woods walkers, so we felt we could photograph safely.

Those are choppy, strong currents. We’re actually looking downstream in all the photos above.

Looking upstream in the next two photos:

Gulp!

High water close up

Currents at play

No worries about our house flooding, we’re on higher ground.

Another view

Sand build-up in motion

Another angle

I usually think winter is so blah and drab, but I became fond of the color range in these photos.

Becoming captivated by a flood

The creek had crested earlier, probably during the night some time. We could see it had been out of its banks even further, from the slicked over vegetation, soggy sand, and deposited driftwood. In fact, we had placed two chairs along the banks and the water had washed one of them completely away, before receding to to the level we see now.

Fungus.

Fungus likes the damp

Leftover autumn color.

Lone leaves over ruffled sand

Run-off drains through the forest, opening up rivulets.

Sunken pine needles.

Pine flooring with freshly downed twigs from the night’s wind.

We came back slightly chilled; Bud the Cat made it plain he stayed cozy and toasty warm. The following day the sun was shining through the window, kissing his whiskers.

Bud the Smug Cat, sunning himself