Tuesday, March 13, 2007

The Frank and Poet Drain Adventure!

February 9th was the day that it all happened...We had a house showing, this adventure took place but never got posted, and Charity was found to have a very high fever which turned into a series of eventful and prayerful postings for the next month! Finally as things have settled down, Charity is doing better and our live's have returned to almost normal (whatever that is?!) we get back to the second happening of that very eventful day :
The Adventure at Frank and Poet Drain.

The day was bright yet overcast, the glittering blanket of snow helping to illuminate our world. The temperature was mild, and as was earlier stated, we had a showing for our house in the mid afternoon and so the gang (minus John and Charity) headed out of the house in several different directions ending up with a visit to the river down the street.
This "river" has had many a visit from members of the Sauve family on several occasions throughout the last few years as we have taken our dog Baby out for walks and found that she really enjoys water. Our small city of Riverview is a "Rural City". Bordered by the now subdivision-invaded farm land and decades old woodlands we are still surrounded by some of God's most beautiful creations. Down the road from us stands a piece of the past- an old farm house and collections of barns spaced out on a most likely once large but now small piece of land and running along the front of that property is Frank and Poet Drain. Yes, though not attractively named, this small river - as we call it- starts is track somewhere over in the Rural lands of Romulus and slipping through the lower wetlands ends it race flowing out into the Detroit river. Though for whatever reason it is here or how it came to be made, this small river has brought us great enjoyment and as this post is to show- a most unique opportunity of enjoyment was had on the afternoon of February 9th!



Because of the very low temperatures from previous days we were very excited to find out that Frank and Poet Drain was frozen- almost totally through- and so on this day we decided to go for a walk on the river!


Smooth and glistening with only a few spots still snow covered, we headed down (or rather up) stream slipping and sliding, hopping over low branches as we made our way along.


As you can see, the drain was quite frozen and had made a beautiful 'still life' waterfall that Christianna just had to get her picture taken with! =) Unfortunately the photographer was 'taking too long and walking too slow' so I wasn't able to get a clear closeup picture of the gorgeous ripples frozen in place.


Oh, did I mention that we had Baby with us too? She was really enjoying herself, not minding the slipperiness of the ice and was overall thrilled to finally be able to sniff out the other side of the river that she has never been able to get at before!

As I walked along keeping my eyes open for any photographic subjects, here are a couple unique images I was able to capture.

Frozen leaves amidst the once swirling and bubbling water.


A grand Great Blue Heron must have taken a stroll down this water way on a day when the ice was starting to thaw as these deep, clear footprints appeared in many places along the trail.

A bubbling air pocket with a hole on top provided a neat view of the still fast moving water below. The blurry object at the top of the picture is Joshua's fist as he tested the strength of this remarkable phenomenon - rock solid!


Along the river we traveled- the photographer lagging way behind with Christianna keeping her company- and around the bend we came to where the water went under the road through a large cement structured tunnel.


I had never been down this far before (some of the other kids had gone wading when the water was low in the summer) so it was pretty amazing to be able to walk under a road on top of water!! The picture is a little dark but it was the only ok photo that I was able to get of myself.


We finally came up to a point where the ice was getting a little too thin to walk on and this huge crack was waning open as the water was rushing by underneath.

We then started to make our way back down the glazed pathway and towards home.


On the way back along the river I had Josiah quickly pose for this picture and though I tried to get a whole group picture by setting the camera down on these rock slabs, the batteries were not able to hold up with the settings I had the camera on so the picture never happened. (though later I realized what I could have done to make it work but by that time everyone had quickly moved on).

We finally got back to the open area where the ice was so smooth I wished I had brought my ice skates (though I have never skated before), but everyone else was have the grandest of times just skating with their boots and shoes and the results are these following pictures!

Baby and Faith - having the time of their lives!


What an experience and what a day! Even though when we got home things seemed to turn disastrous, I don't think we will ever forget (with the help of these images) the great and enjoyable time God allowed us to have in being able to so closely encounter a beautiful part of His nature - to be able to walk down a river and see and experience things we would otherwise never been able to. So for even the small things in life that we can be blessed by, for this small event that took place in our lives we are very thankful - when we took a walk down Frank and Poet Drain! ~ Grace



... And the sun was shining on the water.
2 Kings 3:22