A Peaceful November Scene Along Spring Creek

When I had my annual medical visit back in October, my doctor wrote an order for blood tests, which I typically do every year in November. So Sunday night found me doing the fasting thing starting at 9 p.m. On this morning, we went into town for the blood test and some shopping.

Our journeys included returning books at the local book drop, getting my blood test at 10:15, picking up a few things at the Dollar Tree, shopping for groceries at Walmart, nabbing a pair of Whopper Juniors at Burger King for lunch, perusing the local Rural King (and bringing home some of their free popcorn for later), and going into the Nittany Mall to get a Bath & Body Works freebie with a coupon I received in the mail.

Our last stop of the day was this one: we took Rock Road out of town and stopped by the rusty bridge and spillway on Spring Creek Canyon for a little walk and a few pictures. Now, some of you who have been around for a while will remember many of my morning adventures, chasing frost mist, herons, and what-not along this creek. What fine times I have had, and most of them happened on my morning drive to work! Here are few favorite Spring Creek photo memories:

Blue Canyon
The Valley of the Low, Low Sun
Impression: Leaf Art on the Spillway
Our Lady of the Woods and Waters
The New Madonna of Spring Creek
Winter's Magic
Didn't We Shine

It is funny to say it out loud but I think of this (and many other of my haunts) as MORNING places, in that most of the times I saw them, they were lit by morning light. Well, let me tell you, photographically speaking, it almost confused me to be there in early afternoon. The light was very different!!! It was right in my eyes, in fact, so I had to try some different angles on the spillway.

You can see a little concrete border type thing just to the right of the spillway, which is where I stand when I am making the actual water shots (for instance, the one above featuring the leaf art). It is rather narrow and I can only stand there so long watching the water before it makes me dizzy - and I always reach out, touch the tree which is just out of scene, steady myself, and walk carefully back to land before I fall in! Just a bit of the rusty bridge is included in the upper right corner.

My husband and I walked around for maybe a half hour before heading home to unpack all of the stuff in the car. Sometimes we feel like "Ma and Pa Kettle went to town" in these episodes - it takes a while to unload the car and bring everything in and put it away, LOL! 

But I have to tell you that coming back to Spring Creek, especially to this favorite spot, where I have hung out so many times over so many years, and have found peace and comfort along these waters, even if only for five or ten minutes here and there, was such a treat. It felt like coming home.

My soundtrack song is sung by Bonnie Raitt; the guy on the piano is the one who wrote it, Randy Newman. The song is Feels Like Home.