January 23, 2010

Icicles



Little Biker Boy ran up and down the path, yelling into the wind. He made snowballs and threw them into the canal, shrieking as they bounced off the ice. He got down on all fours and pretended he was a coyote. He climbed up embankments and then slid down them. Then he came back to hold my hand as we walked along, his winter coat hanging open.

“What’s the bridge for?” he asked. I explained that it was an aqueduct, built to carry the canal over a stream.

We could hear the stream, rushing loudly through the old stone arches below the frozen canal, so we climbed down a path into the woods to see it up close. While Little Biker Boy poked around in the water, I took photos and tried to analyze the animal tracks I could see. A human and a dog had come this way. And a rabbit.

“Com’ere! Fast!” Little Biker Boy screamed. I could tell from his tone that he’d made some kind of discovery. On the edge of the stream, ice crystals had formed, thin cracked ice that formed delicate shapes.

“Aren’t they pretty?” he asked. “I found them.”

The sun felt almost hot as we walked back to the car, our winter coats unbuttoned. “That was fun,” Little Biker Boy said as he climbed into the backseat. His restless energy had dissipated and he talked calmly as we drove back home.

Follow the leader

6 comments:

Digger said...

Great pix, Jo(e)! And <3 Little Biker Boy discovering the world around him. Does you taking photos encourage him to look more closely?

jo(e) said...

He tends to be sort of oblivious to my taking photos. But the nice thing is that if I'm taking photos and he's exploring, we're both moving along at the same pace.

Tall Kate said...

Oh, jo(e), I know many people have said it before, but it bears repeating: these kids are So Lucky to have you in their lives. What a gift you're giving them.

Yankee, Transferred said...

You will make a life-long difference for LBB

landismom said...

The temperature of boys that age must just run hotter than the rest of ours. My son is constantly coming in without his mittens, hat, etc. I can see him running around in the snow with his jacket open.

Jennifer said...

@ landismom - just yesterday walking my son home from school one of his little sort of friends walked part way with us with his jacket open and half falling off. "Aren't you cold, G?" I asked. "Nah" he shrugged and went stomping through what was left of the snow.