Rewriting our childhood

Following Hannah Hinchman's advice, I have begun to re-remember my childhood, recording my memories of the fields, streams, woods, and prairie land that surrounded my childhood home in rural southern Wisconsin. In between my nature memories from my Midwestern childhood, I am adding descriptions and reflections from my walks through the woods, fields, and marshes of the suburban New England town that is now my home.

I invite you to share your memories of nature from your childhood or your responses to nature as an adult in the comments.

Katy Z. Allen
January 21, 2012

Note: Unless otherwise credited, photos were taken by me.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Water Striders

I loved watching the water striders. The creek ran through a culvert beneath the driveway, and the embankment there provided a convenient access point to the creek that that didn't involve tromping through a muddy marsh. I liked to take off my shoes and socks and wade into the stream, and feel the cold water and the gravel and mud between my toes, and to see the water striders up close, from within their territory, the water.  


I still like to take off my shoes and socks
and feel the cold water and the gravel and mud
between my toes.
The water striders did just as their name says - they strode atop the moving water. The flowing water of the creek carried the striders downstream, and they continuously leaped upstream, just managing to remain in one place and not disappear through the culvert and into the woodsy marsh beyond. They walked on water. They didn't flit away. And, they didn't bite. They captured my fancy, these harmless insects that never seemed to get anywhere despite their constant movement.
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3 comments:

  1. David AllenJanuary 26, 2012 at 8:48 AM

    Hi Katy. Thanks so much for sharing these. They trigger vivid memories of that incredible farm of our childhood, memories that continue to nourish. They are so clear and full of life in your pen. You write so beautifully.

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  2. Katy Z. AllenJanuary 26, 2012 at 5:16 PM

    Thank you David!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Tom SteinbergJanuary 4, 2016 at 7:42 PM

    Yep. Still really good stuff in 2015. In the Autumn when Deadwood Creek is low, I sit, entranced, watching the interference patterns: water striders - and juvenile Coho salmon, taking gnats at the surface. I have a lot of photos of interfernce patterns -- they look quite abstract, like some of Mary's that I saw on exhibit near UW campus, late '80's, maybe 1990.

    Ripple in Still Water
    When there is no pebble tossed
    No wind to blow.

    In 1995 Nancy suggested we might buy country property. My response - I've always wanted a place with a creek...

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