It's that time of year again

Don't get me wrong- it's still winter, and our heaviest snows often come in March, if they don't come in April. I remember one year with measurable snow in May. We are not digging our shorts out yet. But, it is thawing.

See that? Standing water. And patches of bare ground. The ground itself is still frozen a good 6' down, but the surface is thawing, and soon, snow or no, we'll see a hint of green in the grass.

But a thaw, even an early, temporary one, means that the creeks and rivers are starting to rise. I remember years when Turtle Creek (which is back behind our house )(way back, and way down- far enough that if we're ever in danger, the entire state will be under water) ran dry for years at a stretch. But we've been in a wet cycle for over a decade, with water flowing constantly, during all seasons (under the frozen surface in the winter). We started out this winter after very rare fall flooding. We had plenty of water already.

And now that the thaw has begun, after a winter with a whole lot of snow, Creek Watching has become a Taylor Pastime. So as a baseline comparison, this is what the oxbow looked like yesterday afternoon:

The water is already a good 10' above normal levels. Temps are supposed to get into the low 50's today, with rain tomorrow. Give it a day or so, a week at most, and it's going to get reeeel interesting back there. We'll take pictures. Lots of them.