What did Spring time whisper?

O, ye rivulets, waking from your trance so sad?

Speed, for summer's in the air,

Prattle for the breeze is warm,

Chatter by the otter's lair,

Bubble past the ivied farm;

Wake the primrose on the banks

Bid the violet ope' her eyes

Hurry in a flood of thanks underneath serener skies!

What a revel's coming soon..."

~ Norman Gale

We all six of us decided we needed to take a long breath of fresh air and nothing is so alluring in the Spring as running water! Especially when great chunks of ice and snow break off from their winter fastness at your feet and precipitate impetuously down stream, bumping recklessly over bunches of weeds or stones on their way. 

All sorts of little animals have come alive in the melee...

Charlie found a regular wolf spider casually riding on the surface of the icy waters...

We also saw the little water rats swimming about ecstatically as if busy to make up for lost time. The current is so strong that if they lose their footing they often have to let themselves float down stream until they can catch at a bit of grass and "climb" the weed stalks like monkey bars back up to their home. They are sociable creatures and let you get quite close. :o)

Several times a few of us stepped in water too deep and had to empty our boots and wring out our socks! Of course this made it all the more interesting; how deep can you walk before water pours in above the rim of your boot!

We all walked home more or less wet; although I wouldn't have been wet at all if I hadn't practically sat down while photographing the little rats...

Looking in from the "outside"...

I am not regularly fond of spiders in the woods who weave webby strings from tree to tree at about the level of my mouth; but just now in the Spring when they are most of them still asleep I can truly appreciate a little "jumper". You can see him below sitting like a little bump on the branch; he is not very active yet but he is slowly, groggily waking up, strategizing for his first web.