Grim and Gray Days

It wasn't easy to make out the words etched onto the large rock at water's edge.  This past Sunday morning, I'd paddled in close for the purpose of stopping for a snack before ascending the Assabet River.  After a minute or so I could make out the first line..."By the ancient hemlocks grim and gray"...then the second line became clearer..."Our boat drifts slowly on its way".  The words are from a poem, Floating Hearts by George Bradford Bartlett whom the etched stone is a memorial to.  Later, I found online the rock's full inscription which, near the bottom and under the moss, describes Bartlett as "Most courteous kindly gentleman, and the tender friend to all".

When Bartlett wrote Floating Hearts he was referring to this very spot at a bend in the river where large hemlocks once lined the riverbank and draped over the water.  During his lifetime in the 1800s most of the hemlocks were removed to allow a railroad grade to run along the riverbank.  The railroad operated for about 50 years until being abandoned around 1925.

On this day I'll take the words "grim and gray" to mean...though things might look grim and gray at this moment, this too shall pass.

  
This "so-called" paddler has heard and read some disturbing statements from our country's new administration over the last few weeks, and I'd be lying if I said those statements weren't weighing heavily on my mind while out on the water.  It was to the Assabet River that I went in hopes of thinking things through, and found myself wondering where are the leaders of the Republican party and when will they take a stand on principle?  Just how far will they allow things to deteriorate before they finally find the inner strength necessary to say "This is wrong"?  Ill spoken words are hanging in the air and the time for taking a stand is now.

After my snack break I pushed off from the rock and headed upriver on what could be best described as a "grim and gray" winter's day.  Fortunately
temperatures were in the upper 30s F and the section of the river I paddled was, for the most part, sheltered from the busy breeze.

These two Muscovy ducks didn't have much to say but at least they were taking a stand...

Later this red-tailed hawk took a stand and faced into the stiff breeze...

I went upriver as far as Nashoba Brook...

...which was sending a good flow into the river.

On my return trip I passed the inscription at Egg Rock, noting the water level has dropped a couple of inches...

Trash encountered along the way...

 

 

Yesterday, while reflecting on last Sunday's visit to the Assabet, a small hawk decided to spend several hours on a tree limb outside our window...

 

 

 

After a few hours facing away from our window, it reversed position...

 

...allowing my closest-ever look at, what I believe to be, a Cooper's Hawk.

 

This morning it's being reported that the man recently nominated to the Supreme Court may have taken a stand.  I'm hoping it's true.