Flooded

Impressionist liquid
London, ON, March 2008

In between shuttling little people from place to place last Sunday, I found myself with a little extra time on my hands. Before I left the house, my wife told me to take my camera, to take pictures, to take some time. She's cool that way. And not wanting to disappoint her, I popped the camera bag over my shoulder and headed out.

I ended up stopping by a bend in the river that winds it way through much of our burg. I didn't really have any predisposed ideas about what I wanted to capture. It was a gray day, with a cold sun burning through the clouds every once in a while. My fingers ached from the cold as I wrapped them tightly around the camera's grip and walked among the seagulls, ducks and geese flocking around the empty dock.

I chose this picture as the first to share from the series because we woke up today to some of the highest water levels in a generation. A snowy winter and a very rapid meltoff resulted in flooding that forced police to close roads and reroute traffic for much of the day. As I cycled by the corner where I took this shot just three days ago, my jaw dropped: the dock was completely underwater, and the water's edge, usually well away from the road, almost licked the sidewalk in places. Scary stuff, and yet another reminder that nature really does follow its own path, and we'd be wise to respect it.

Your turn: The first three words that come to mind as you look at this picture are...?