A sunny Saturday, with wispy white clouds painting the blue, blue sky.

I am just home from printing the pew bulletins for tomorrow's Morning Prayer. and see that it is time for Happy Hour (a little Orange Brandy) and that there are enough minutes before supper to gather up a few pictures and tell the tale of my pleasant, but rather lonely, trip to Ginty's Pond.

It is blossom time in the valley, and the orchards are fragrant with peach and plum and cherry promises - and the apple trees still just in the pink.

I went on a whim, on the spur of the moment, and found that the battery in my camera was low, so took the Ipad instead.  It takes lovely pictures and is immediately available for quick snaps, but they aren't quite the quality of the Canon.

I am less daring than Charles was when we made these trips together, and was loath to take the narrow river bank road in Cawston, but saw through the trees that the river is still quite low.

As I drove out I looked upon the lane leading to the old Pump House which supplied

water to the Veterans on the Cawston Bench in our early days of farming.

It looked so inviting, but what was once a walk along the lane is now a saunter,

and that accompanied by a CANE!

Ginty's Pond is still very much muddled with the remains of last year's growth,

and the water itself is rather scummy in spots,

but I did see a few ducks, still courting, off in the distance.

Unfortunately didn't have the long lens with me!

The upper end of the pond was much more picturesque and a few ducks

were out taking in the sunshine and calm waters.

Across the road, where the culvert guides the stream down through a meandering path to the river

the pond itself had little to offer, but the blue sky and clouds stretching down to the Border

were promising.

I went along the old familiar road through Fairview Heights, the Veterans'  project,

and around the Rocking Chair ranch where a friendly black cow looked at me

inquisitively when I stopped to snap a picture.

The new property owner down the road where we used to stop on the bridge and take 

lovely pictures of the creek has removed the old willow that once dipped it's branches

into the water, and the grasses that grew along the side provided

shade for the occasional fish.

But here is a picture of it, as it was.....

I stopped on the way home to visit with family and see what blossoms the farm had to offer...

and also got a nice picture of a sweet great grandson up a gnarled old cherry tree!

 At home the tulips were showing signs of being ready to provide

altar flowers on Sunday, and a little clump of daffodils and

delicate blue forget-me-nots blossomed at the foot of the quince,

whose buds are showing beasutiful shades of pink and coral.

Next week I will take a little jaunt out west, across the river, to see where the water reaches on the rock that Charles always used for a flood-or-not-flood spring.